KOREA FOUNDATION

1. Please briefly introduce yourself.

I am an artist of Korean painting and currently teach in the Department of Painting at Dongduk Women’s University’s College of Arts. As an artist, I am committed to bringing the traditional Korean paper, known as it hanji, into the contemporary art scene in an effort to preserve and modernize a time-honored culture on the wane.

2. You have long devoted yourself to the modern reinterpretation of hanji. How did this interest first come about?

I began to study hanji seriously in 1994 while writing a paper on “The Impact of Hanji on the History of Painting in Korea” at Seoul National University’s College of Fine Arts. The first thing I did after completing my treatise was to explore hanji’s current standing across the country, and I realized for the first time just how dire the situation was. I decided to collect even the smallest remaining items and materials, in the hopes of continuing to reproduce both the paper itself and the traditions surrounding it. What I was able to collect served as the foundation for my hanji work. For about half a year I operated a paper factory and reproduced the traditional paper. I believed that the most important thing was educating people about the time-honored paper and encouraging them to use it. I wrote a book and with it have been running a class titled “Molding with Hanji” at the university until now. Through education and programs, I try to show that hanji is not just part of the tradition and culture of days gone by, but that it can be established as a modern art. I teach my students how best to use hanji as a form of contemporary art.

3. Could you tell us more about how you formulated the world’s first “hanji theory?”

It would be better to say that I have organized the theory than to say I formulated it. I made efforts to arrange and reproduce the hanji culture found in artifacts and scattered parts of history. Traditional hanji includes various colorful papers that we call saekhanji. To my regret, I discovered that many hanji makers do not know how to make natural dyes, and those who make natural dyes do not know how to make hanji. Therefore, the saekhanji of the olden days cannot be made today. The colorful hanji we see in markets are instead created with chemical dyes or in other synthetic ways. I strove hard to study both the paper and the dyes in order to once again bring traditional hanji and saekhanji crafts into the foundation of contemporary art.

4. From February 22 to April 21, the Korean Cultural Institute in Rome is holding the exhibition In Life and Hanji. How has the local response been so far?

Traditional hanji is unique in that ink does not smudge or run, and it has a classic, moderate aesthetic. One of my early attempts was giving three dimensions to the paper and then turning it into something featuring aesthetics from both the East and the West. Based on knowledge gained from my 30 years of hanji research, and after long consideration, I spent a year working on three-dimensional artworks that apply hanji to a contemporary art context. This invitational exhibition in Rome shows the outcome.

I was very surprised on the opening day. There was a long line of people waiting to enter the exhibition hall which could not accommodate them all. The visitors showed keen interest in hanji as well as other exhibits related to traditional Korean culture, such as a bandaji (Korean wooden chest), hangari (moon jar), and hanji reliefs of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. They were also drawn to the Mother Mary Statue, Jesus Christ Statue, and crucifix made of hanji and asked many questions. Visitors were eager to learn about the colors made with traditional natural dyes. Culture seems to be reborn through those who appreciate and love it. I think this exhibition serves as an occasion for showing off the excellence of hanji and traditional Korean culture in Italy.

5. The exhibition is planned to tour Austria and other European countries through next year, bringing the Korean aestheticism and culture in hanji to art lovers there.

After Rome, the exhibition will move to Vienna to celebrate the opening of the Korean Cultural Center there on May 18, after which it will travel to the Atelier Gustave in Paris, France, to be presented as an invitational show. On February 23, 2024, the exhibition will open at the Korean Cultural Center in Budapest, Hungary. Earlier that same month, I will give a workshop on saekhanji for Italy-based experts in the preservation and treatment of cultural treasures at the Vatican Museums. There are constant requests for my exhibition from other museums as well.

6. Would you tell us about the appeal of hanji works and the potential of hanji art?

The greatest appeal of hanji works is their durability, transformability, and recyclable character. Hanji exceeds papers from other parts of the world in endurance, naturalness, and transparency. It can be transformed into diverse shapes. It is made from the bark of paper mulberries and often used for writing or printing. When the paper is worn out, it may be twisted into thread or boiled in water and used to create another type of hanji that is then made into bowls and other crafts—even shoes and clothes. When the wear and tear is too severe, hanji can be used as kindling or compost that helps to grow new paper mulberry trees. Through the ongoing exhibition, I would like to hint at the possibility that even the beautiful life cycle of hanji itself may become a genre of art, if not a part of contemporary art.

7. What are your hopes and wishes as an artist and educator?

One of the most important things about culture is that it should survive into the present. If a culture exists in nothing but relics or records, it is nothing but a dead one. It is the mission of people like me, who create art rooted in tradition and educate others, to reintroduce the disappearing culture into everyday life, helping to modernize it and appear in futuristic ways.

Artists should not be afraid of change. Just as hanji came to me in the form of a new tool, it may emerge as a new genre of fine art and play an unprecedented role in the global art market. I hope more art students will use hanji as a means to enter the contemporary art market, displaying new artistic potential and abilities.