Exhibition showcases beauty of Korea’s traditional crafts

For lovers of traditional Korean art, an exhibition that opened last week at a gallery in Seoul’s Insadong street may give as much joy as a gift set of carefully selected traditional Korean craft items.

Titled “An Old is A New,” the exhibition at the ARA Art Center has an extensive range of craftworks, from small metalwork pieces to furniture and roof tiles.

It features some 500 works by 180 traditional artisans, including those designated as among the country’s “important intangible cultural heritage,” in such fields as horsehair hat making, dyeing, needlework, bamboo blind making, tray-table making, wood furniture making, metal casting, mother-of-pearl inlaying, gold foil artwork and Buddhist painting.

Hosted by the Cultural Heritage Administration, the government agency in charge of managing the nation’s cultural assets, the event, the first such since 1973, also showcases South Korea’s half-century-long history of intangible cultural heritage.

The government began identifying artists as makers of intangible cultural heritage under the Cultural Properties Protection Law in 1964. One hundred and seventy-seven living folk craft masters currently hold the title.

“As more people get bored of standardized products, people do miss the handmade taste and seek the dignity in it,” said Jeong Jun-mo, an art director of the exhibit. “The traditional crafts could be a new thought and a fresh culture to the young generation, the important momentum of our society, whereas the older generation might regard it as an anachronistic thing which lacks modernity.”

Gallery-goers can view crafts being made first hand as some intangible heritage title holders will demonstrate their skills to the public six times a day.

Jeong Yoon-seok is one of 33 title holders around the country demonstrating his skills at the exhibition. The 70-year-old onggi maker traveled from Gangjin, 412 kilometers south of Seoul, to take part.

Onggi is Korean ethnic earthenware, extensively used as tableware and storage containers in Korea.

Clad in traditional brown-dyed clothing, Jeong was kneading a lump of clay to make a crock when this reporter visited to see the exhibition early Wednesday.

Born and raised in a small village in Gangjin known as the birthplace of Korean earthenware, Jeong learned onggi making from his uncle.

“When I was young, 30 out of the village’s about 130 households engaged in the onggi-making business. More and more homes were squeezed out of the market by plastic and rubber containers in the 1970s,” he said. In 1989, he was the only onggi manufacturer in the village. He was designated by the government as Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 96 in February 2010.

Jeong still runs a shop in his hometown, but demand is increasingly slowing as consumers now have diverse options for tableware and storage containers.

As onggi-making is not now a lucrative business, Jeong’s 45-year-old third son is his only student.

“I hope to teach my techniques to as many Korean people as possible before I die but, regrettably, nobody except for my son want to learn them,” the artisan said, indicating regret for Korea’s fading traditions.

The exhibit runs till Nov. 28. 

(Yonhap News)