Artist Han Won-suk turns trash into treasure that gives Korean culture a towering presence

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Artist Han Won-suk turns trash into treasure that gives Korean culture a towering presence

Published: 25 Jan. 2026, 07:00 Updated: 26 Jan. 2026, 15:03

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Architect-artist Han Won-suk works on connecting the speakers and amplifiers inside a gigantic Emille Bell-inspired artwork made from 3,088 discarded speakers at his studio in Busan. [PARK SANG-MOON]

One man's trash is another man's treasure, the saying goes. That proverb holds true for Han Won-suk, who makes large-scale art installations out of abandoned industrial waste.

His works draw inspiration from Korean cultural heritage such as the Cheomseongdae Observatory and the Emille Bell of the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C. to A.D. 935) in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, as well as the iconic moon jar from the Joseon era (1392-1910).

Han's Cheomseongdae sculpture, made from used car headlights, cast a bright glow, while his Emille Bell replica, assembled from discarded speakers, emulates a clear ringing sound.

Han studied environmental design at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in Britain and later earned a degree in architecture from the University of Tokyo. As both an architect and installation artist, he is known for breaking the boundary between architecture and art.

Han Won-suk's artwork, made of discarded car headlights, is the same size as the Cheomseongdae Observatory. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Han’s path to becoming an artist was anything but easy.

He grew up in a troubled household and dreamed of living beautifully. Reading the works of great minds like Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung helped set him on the path to turning that dream into reality. Convinced that becoming an artist was the best way to live that dream, he dropped out of Daeil Foreign Language High School in Seoul at the age of 18. When his father told him to leave home if he was going to become a hwaenjaengi — a dismissive term for artists — Han left for good.

He learned to draw by doing chores at an art academy while earning money as a mover, a welder and a painter at construction sites. At one point, he rented a windowless studio that didn't even have a bathroom. He had to rush to subway stations when he needed to use the restroom. During monsoon season, mold covered his body as he worked in a basement with no sunlight. Still, he endured, believing that every moment brought him closer to the beautiful life he envisioned.

Moon Jar-inspired artwork by Han Won-suk, made of 600 discarded car headlights, is displayed at Cheonggyecheon in central Seoul. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Han spent more than a decade working menial jobs by day and studying art and architecture by night. At 29, he took a leap of faith and moved to London. There, a pivotal moment came — not from canvas or concrete, but from cigarette butts. Collecting discarded cigarette stubs off the streets, he created "The Flower of Evil," a work that sparked attention and helped define his artistic voice. The piece became a symbol of his creative philosophy: to give new life to what has been thrown away.

He held his first solo exhibition in Seoul in 2003, under the same title, "The Flower of Evil." In it, he sought reconciliation between discarded humans and discarded objects.

Discarded objects that are no longer functional and thrown away are the core materials in Han’s work. He views items like car headlights, rubber pipes, cigarette butts and broken speakers not just as trash but as icons of the reality we are living in today.

His first work using car headlights was a life-size reconstruction of Cheomseongdae, created in 2006 to commemorate the first anniversary of the Cheonggyecheon restoration in central Seoul. The piece included 1,374 headlights — matching the age of the real Cheomseongdae at the time — with light-emitting diode lights installed to symbolize starlight, echoing the observatory’s original purpose.

Han Won-suk's artwork inspired by Emille Bell is on display in Busan. [PARK SANG-MOON]

In 2008, Han created a replica of the Emille Bell using 3,080 discarded speakers, connected through 6,160 soldered joints. In 2022, he unveiled a 3.7-meter-tall (12-foot-tall) media installation of the same bell, and in 2025, he completed yet another Emille Bell-inspired piece, using 2,050 waste pipes to mark the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held in Gyeongju.

Later that same year, Han debuted "Re:moon" at the Seoul Cheonggyecheon Lantern Festival. The large-scale moon jar sculpture was made using 600 discarded car headlights and rubber sealant. Through this work, Han visualized a narrative of “rebirth” in which extinguished light is brought back to illuminate the city. The piece was inspired by large moon jars fired in kilns during the reigns of Kings Yeongjo and Jeongjo in the late Joseon Dynasty.

For Han, the traces of the past — whether they’re discarded objects or cultural treasures — deserve respect. His reverence for those remnants, and for the traditional values they represent, forms the core of his work.

Today, Han believes that the answers to modern human disconnection and spiritual depletion may lie in Korean traditional culture.

Among those traditions, he sees the moon jar as the embodiment of harmony, balance, and Korean aesthetics. Now, his dream is to float a moon jar over the skies of London, the city that helped define his identity as an artist. Through the luminous moon-shaped sculpture made of discarded light, he hopes to shine a brighter light on the world.