Crafts and sustainability come together for 'KZ Project' exhibit with SeMoCA

Arts & Design

Published: 11 Jan. 2024, 15:17

Crafts and sustainability come together for 'KZ Project' exhibit with SeMoCA

Shovels, pens, a cutting board and other items by Sim Hyun-seok [SEOUL MUSEUM OF CRAFT ART]

Last October, the Korea Craft and Design Foundation (KCDF) announced its sixth pair of recipients for its annual Craft Prize. The award is given to one contemporary craftsperson and one organization that has contributed to the promotion of Korean craft culture.

The latest winners were silversmith Lee Sang-hyeob, better known overseas as William Lee, whose signature works are round jars forged with a hammer, together with local nonferrous metal smelter Korea Zinc.

But what does a zinc company have to do with Korean crafts? For the last decade, Korea Zinc has actually been a huge supporter of the art form, especially the metalwork field.

The company had been a key sponsor for the annual Metalwork and Jewelry Award, another local craft award dedicated to craftspeople who specialize in metal and adornments. It was initially hosted and organized by the Yoolizzy Craft Museum, but starting with this edition, Korea Zinc is taking full helm and will be managing the metalwork prize to further promote the craft. It expects to announce the award’s 11th winner later this year.

″Watering II″ (2011), left, and ″Sharing″ (2012) by Kim Dong-hyun [SEOUL MUSEUM OF CRAFT ART]

The manufacturer is resolute in continuing to promote Korean crafts, and it recently partnered with the Seoul Museum of Craft Art (SeMoCA) in Jongno District, central Seoul, to hold an exhibition highlighting previous winners of the Metalwork and Jewelry Award.

The two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding last May, naming it the “KZ Project,” in which they will jointly hold an exhibition every two years.

This exhibition centers on sustainability with the hope that the crafts can be used for a long time, hence its title, “Long-Lasting Objects of Metalsmiths.”

“We curated the exhibition hoping that crafts wouldn't be regarded as disposable products, but used almost infinitely, like you would with fountain pens,” SeMoCA’s curator Yi Seung-hae told the Korea JoongAng Daily earlier this week at the museum.

″Kanon 2023_Bw001″ by Lee Young-joo [SEOUL MUSEUM OF CRAFT ART]

In a world where corporates have a responsibility to go green and promote environmentally friendly initiatives, the philosophy of crafts fit well in that it emphasizes reusing and giving materials a new breath of life.

One example is copper foil, which is made out of the debris from Korea Zinc’s copper smelting process and discarded electronic appliances. Instead of allowing the foil to go to waste, they can be recycled and used in crafts, as shown in Cho Sung-ho’s “The Copper Age,” a brooch collection of objects like spoons and seashells that have been covered in copper foil.

″Illy″ by Park Ji-eun [SEOUL MUSEUM OF CRAFT ART]

Park Ji-eun is another craftsperson who focuses on recycling. Her signature works involve using tiny units of steel and silver and connecting them over and over to create jewelry and small objects that are reminiscent of body organs. For this exhibition, however, she specially created brooches made from hole-punched circles of tin cases of Illy coffee and Eclipse breath mints.

″Heartbeat IV″ by Hyun Kwang-hun [SEOUL MUSEUM OF CRAFT ART]

The exhibition also explores true craftsmanship, notably the saying, “a good craftsman never blames his tools.” In the case of Hyun Kwang-hun, he was the embodiment of it: The simple solution to being unable to find screws and gears that fit his analog clocks or cameras was to just make them himself.

Hyun’s brass, gold-plated cameras are obviously intricately made, as one can easily tell by how he very deliberately makes the inner structure of each piece, like the movement of the gears, visible from the outside. But they all have one common unusual factor: There is no camera lens.

“The artist bought a lot of old, broken cameras and practiced fixing them, which is how he learned the technology behind them,” curator Yi said. “That’s how he is now able to sharpen his own nails and build cameras, but the lack of a lens prevents the user from knowing what exactly they’re taking a picture of. The silver lining is that it encourages the fun of analog photography; something that is absent with smartphones nowadays.”

″Breath Holding″ by Han Sang-deok [SEOUL MUSEUM OF CRAFT ART]

Han Sang-deok took a more playful and allegorical approach, with a sweating bird character who walks on two feet that he calls his persona. The artist creates small statues and accessories featuring the bird, made of wood with a metallic surface, and this represents his “anxiety,” curator Yi said.

“It’s the artist’s way of expressing the nervous feelings that anyone can have and relate to every day,” she said, stressing the versatility that metal and ornamental crafts are able to showcase.

″Ice Bucket,″ back, and ″Wine Goblet″ by Joo So-won [SEOUL MUSEUM OF CRAFT ART]

“Long-Lasting Objects of Metalsmiths” continues until March 10. SeMoCA is open every day except Mondays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hours extend to 9 p.m. on Fridays. Admission is free.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]