한국국제교류재단

To Kim Min-wook, woodcraft is not about design. Rather, it is about revealing the inherent qualities and aesthetics of the wood.

 

Kim displays some works and materials in his workshop, QI MINU, in his hometown, Busan. This is where he also produces custom furniture.

When Kim Min-wook stumbles upon insects in long fallen trees, it reminds him of the uniqueness of wood. It is the only handicraft material that has harbored other forms of life.

Kim has an affinity for wood imprinted with the passage of time. He finds beauty in little holes and patterns formed by insects, deformations from exposure to rain and wind, and dark stains caused by fungi. He appreciates the imperfections for what they are, accepting what Mother Nature has begotten and proceeds from there. This is why Kim focuses on bringing out the qualities of natural wood rather than design or utility.

Kim especially enjoys working with a lathe because it allows him to carve at a steady pace. The more the wood is deformed and damaged, the more he feels challenged. He enjoys the process of revealing a story. When the story hidden within each piece of wood comes to the surface, he leaves it to Mother Nature to add the finishing touches. He allows the wood to dry naturally and undergo further transformation. Cracks may deepen, or the wood might bend. If the contortion becomes too pronounced, he may intervene with a small piece of metal to straighten it. This is the way he works — allow the wood to warp and bend naturally, and fine-tune its shape when necessary.

Nine years after becoming a full-time craftsman, Kim was named one of the four winners of the 2019 Lexus Creative Masters Award. Organized by Lexus Korea, this initiative provides financial support and recognition to up-and-coming craft artists. In 2022, Kim was also a finalist for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize. Nevertheless, he is uncomfortable calling himself an artist, and says that all he really does is reveal the stories hidden inside trees.

Kim found his calling by being pragmatic. He majored in fashion design but began thinking that life abroad would suit him better than staying in Seoul. Deciding that he needed an alternate skill, he trained in woodworking. After three years as a custom furniture maker in Ilsan, a satellite city of Seoul, he returned to his hometown of Busan to start working in craft. Today, many stores sell his works and he has a dedicated fan base, but he still accepts orders for custom-designed furniture.

Kim now dreams of injecting his own thoughts into the wooden works that he carves, but he is corralling his ambitions for now, deferring them to the distant future.

Bae Se-jin molds little blocks engraved with serial numbers into an array of s. He has produced 346,000 blocks in the past 15 years, a testament to his devotion to pottery making.

Kim, who changed course and chose woodworking, was selected among the finalists for the 2022 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize for his work “Instinctive,” made with oak wood.
Courtesy of the Seoul Museum of Craft Art

Handicraft is visual proof of time and effort. There is no room for tricks and deception. It is obvious what occupies potter Bae Se-jin: fitting together numbered blocks to form s. Beginning with the first block in 2008, his third year at university, he now has nearly 346,000 blocks.

The main methods of making pottery are wheel throwing, slip casting, and hand building, which consists of coiling and slab building. When Bae was fulfilling a slab-building assignment in his introductory pottery class at Seoul National University, a senior walking by complimented him. That motivated Bae to commit himself to pottery making.

In his cohort, Bae is an outlier. Most potters change their style as they learn new techniques. Bae, however, determined early what technique suited him and what he wanted to express through his work. That has allowed him to immerse himself in his craft without losing time to trial and error.

The more Bae became engrossed in pottery, the more he realized how much time ceramic work required. There is no way to accelerate or control the time needed for clay to dry or bake inside a kiln without incurring risks. Undaunted, he embraced the inherent limitations to give meaning to his creations. That is why he began making blocks engraved with serial numbers.

These numbers appearing in the names of his works correspond to the serial numbers of the little blocks that have gone into making them. The blocks also recall his student days, when he had to take a break from university and work to earn money for tuition. By day he worked for an exhibition design company, and at night he did promotion work for a theatrical troupe. The pay for the latter was modest, but Bae was happy and grateful just to be able to watch the plays.

Nowadays, all of Bae’s works also include the letters “WGF,” which stand for “Waiting for Godot.” It is one of his favorite plays, in which the main characters wait endlessly for the arrival of Godot without being quite sure who he is or if he will ever come. Bae thinks that is an apt description of a potter’s life — constant waiting for clay to either dry or bake.

During the last seven years, Bae has also been conducting pottery workshops in a studio in Seoul’s Pil-dong area. Initially, the workshops were a means to support himself. Now, the aim is to educate the general public and ensure long-term appreciation and consumption of arts and crafts.

“WFG 282260-284565_1.” 2019. 33 × 33 × 35 cm. Bae’s works are also marked with “WFG,” which stands for the title of his favorite play “Waiting for Godot.” The title represents the constant waiting for clay to dry or finish baking in a kiln.

Bae teaches ceramics to the general public at his workshop in Seoul’s Pil-dong area. It is his way of helping ensure there will be enough people supporting the arts and crafts ecosystem in the future.

Yang Yoo-wan is both a glassmaker and the founder of design studio Mowani Glass. She is part of an expanding cohort who straddle the line between artist and designer, creating a fresh style and helping design items for mass production.

While she continuously stretches her creativity, Yoon is also constantly courted by beauty, lifestyle, and dining brands. Brainstorming for them is an opportunity to experiment with a wide variety of styles.

In college, Yang was an industrial design major and dreamed of becoming an automotive designer. Then she stumbled upon glasswork and her world-class talent emerged even before graduating. A hap, a traditional covered bowl that she made using porcelain for the vessel and glass for the lid, earned her the Outstanding Student Award, a chance to participate in the Milan Design Week, and an opportunity to later display her work at London’s renowned Mint and Saatchi galleries.

Since then, she has been experimenting with material combinations and trying various techniques such as enamel and lacquer coating as well as copper foiling to develop arresting new colors. Yang’s experimentation and unconventional glassblowing technique produce a signature style.

Most glassblowers regard the presence of air bubbles as a sign of failure and discard their work. Yang also struggled to produce glass completely free of air bubbles, but then began to look at the problem from a new perspective. She decided to use air bubbles topatterns in the glass, using the same reasoning that led her to produce atypically shaped glass, which varies in appearance when observed at different angles.

Whenever Yang receives a request from a client, she sees it as an opportunity to gain new insights into her craft. For example, when spa brand Swiss Perfection asked for a work to be used to represent water, Yang designed a bowl that subsequently inspired ideas for plates, dipping bowls, and other kinds of tableware. A large, pendant lighting fixture for the BOONTHESHOP store in Seoul’s trendy Cheongdam-dong, designed by world-renowned architect Peter Marino, was a new kind of challenge. The request called for seven long rectangular blocks of bubble-filled glass that could be suspended from the ceiling.

As a businesswoman managing her own glass brand, Yang emphasizes the importance of teamwork because she knows she cannot handle everything on her own. Whether it be the programming skills required as a designer, a curiosity for different materials, the sensibility and manual skills needed to be a craft artist, or the business savvy of the owner of a mass production facility — Yang has it all.

Yang Yoo-wan’s workshop incudes a living room to relax in. One of the walls is lined with some of her own creations and travel souvenirs — s which provide her with positive energy.

Flower vases on a table inside Yang’s workshop. Yang enjoys experimenting with wood, ceramic, and metals because they allow her to affirm her distinct identity as a glass artist.