On Aug 26, Kang Seuk-keun, a lacquer and woodworking artist since 1997, was awarded the ‘’1st Yoolizzy Craft Award’’ for his lacquer vessel “Language of the Earth” at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art in Seoul, Jongno. The Yoolizzy Craft Award was formed to promote Korean craft culture.
He uses a unique lacquering method that gives his work lasting durability in their functional use. Therefore, his work innovatively incorporates Ottchil, the Korean traditional natural lacquering.
In 2020, he was the winner of the ‘’Today's Young Artist Award’’ given by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, he also received a bronze award & special award at the Namwon-si National Wood Arts Competition in 2019. In 2021, he was one of the finalists of The LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize.
Kang Suk-keun is participating in the Korea Craft Show in Paris 2024 from Sep 5 to 14. Also, he has participated in other exhibitions including the Jinju Traditional Crafts Biennale entitled ''Today's Craft, Tomorrow's Tradition,'' and the Craft Trend Exhibition at COEX in 2023.
His future exhibitions will be at the Craft-Expansion Fair in Berlin in October and the Craft Trend Fair at COEX in Seoul in December.
In this email interview, conducted between Aug 31 to Sep 9, Kang Suk-keun, talks about the Yoolizzy Craft Award and his work with wood, ‘’Hamji’’ timber bowls.
Below are the excerpts.
1. How do your surroundings impact your work?
I spent my childhood in Sokcho which has the most beautiful natural environment in Korea, and now I live in Ulsan, a representative industrial city. Although it’s an industrial city, I live and work in the most beautiful countryside in Ulsan, where you can enjoy the sea, mountains, and valleys within an hour by car.
The representative keywords of my work are practicality, artistry, and beauty. As someone who expresses nature through artistry and beauty, the surrounding environment becomes the basis of my work.
2. You have been honored with the first Yoolizzy Craft Award. What do you believe made your lacquer vessel, "Language of the Earth," stand out?
I believe that practicality and artistry are well expressed in the "Language of the Earth" lacquer vessel. From an artistic perspective, it has a practicality not found in traditional art, and from a practical perspective, it has a sense of artistry.
The value of modern crafts lies in the combination of the practicality of traditional crafts and modern artistry, even though achieving this balance is difficult, it is harmonized beautifully.
3. Tell us a few words about the ‘’Language of the Earth.’’
The internal finish of the "Language of the Earth" lacquer vessel was produced in a unique way based on the traditional lacquer method called ‘’lacquer thermosetting’’ and can contain anything you want. The outside was conveyed by spraying brass and copper powder and oxidizing it to create a natural texture and coloring by using a spraying technique.
"Earth's language" is sensibility. Therefore, there are two sensibilities of fear and energy in the expression of the raging sea. The dark deep sea-like expression in the ‘’Hamji’’ coexists with the fear of silence and the generosity of depth. Small stones expressed as sea rocks have a sense of anxiety that looks precarious and a sense of stability that is not swayed by the surrounding environment.
4. You work with wood quite frequently. What draws you to this material, and have you encountered any challenges with it?
Trees have their rings, harmonizing warmth, softness, and hardness. The main reason I'm attracted to wood is that trees' rings record the history of the earth’s nature. When I express the sea figuratively, I don't carve it into a complete form; only the basic form is carved, and the rest shrink as the objects dry to form a form called ‘’the sea.’’ Controlling the cracks and splits caused by contraction is the most difficult part of the work.
5. Which piece that you've worked on is meaningful to you?
A piece that is meaningful to me is the piece titled "FOR," which was the final nominee for the 2021 LOEWE Craft Award. This piece represents my craft philosophy of ‘’Craft is the art of making something beautiful by adding artistry to practicality’’ and it has set the standard for my work ever since.
6. What are you working on at the moment?
For instance, the ‘’Language of the earth’’ vessel was expressed through sensibility. It is the earth’s nature that conveys many sensations such as wind, waves, mountains, and rocks. I expressed this medium in a formative way. But, the current project I'm working on is a representation of both wind and a wave as a single piece.
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