Floral Doors

All images copyright of Kwan Jo

 from the book

KKot Mun - Floral Doors of Korean Buddhist Temples

These floral doors have intrigued me with their intricate patterns and hand carving. It is also a wonder that these beautiful doors are like pieces of a puzzle, they just fit in together and are assembled with no use of glue or nails.

The textures and patterns of these doors will be altered and used as textile prints in my collection.

Hangeul in Fashion

sourced from http://kr.blog.yahoo.com/fpzmfldpdltus@ymail.com/7.html?p=1&t=2

Over the years, the Korean alphabet Hangeul has been peeping into the design industry on an international level. Most reknowned designer amongst many is the Paris-based avantgarde fashion designer Lie Sang Bong, mentioned in an earlier post.



Lie Sang Bong Spring Summer 2007
http://www.liesangbong.com/

Recently the beauty of Hangeul in fashion has attracted many international acclaim and popularity amongst Hollywood celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Juliette Binoche.




Designer Lie Sang Bong with the English Patient actress Julitte Binoche
sourced from http://stoo.asiae.co.kr/news/stview.htm?idxno=2009032416334641524



Lindsay Lohan in Hangeul shirt by Lie Sang Bong
sourced from http://net.segye.com/tag/%EB%A6%B0%EC%A0%9C%EC%9D%B4%20%EB%A1%9C%ED%95%9C


Apart from fashion, Hangeul has also influenced designers in graphic and interior circles, images will be uploaded in the next post.

Korean Architecture

Chosun Dynasty court architecture sourced from http://www.silentcreek.de/ and http://www.photo.net/

Upon researching Korean art and history, I have come across amazing architecture from the Chosun period. Vibrant colours, and detailed patterns in repeat, these elements have contributed to the design details that I would like to add to my collection. Pleating and layering of fabric as well as repeat digital printing will be the key representations of the architecture within my designs.

Modern Day Hanbok

Modern interpretations of the Korean traditional dress by designer Lie Sang Bong.
In this collection Lie Sang Bong uses the traditional Korean art style of 'yeobaek', the use of white/empty space. This is a carefully balanced artistic expression conveyed through black calligraphy and symbols on white space.

Lie Sang Bong Spring Summer 2007

http://www.liesangbong.com/

Hanbok

Gold embroidered Hanbok worn by the Queen

When the Goryeo Dynasty was replaced by Chosun, the founder, an ex-Goryeo general and his descendants made Neo-Confucianism the predominant religion. The revised teachings emphasised acts of formality and etiquette which dictated the style of dress for the royal family, all the members of the court, aristocrats as well as commoners. These regulations of dress reflected the foremost social values which was integrity in men and chastity in women (Korean Culture and Information Service 2010).

  Where the different styles, colours and lengths of hanbok in the Chosun Dynasty instigated as the status symbols of the time, in contemporary South Korean society, this has been replaced by an idealised form of Western beauty. The rapid modernisation, more likely, the Americanisation of the country has left many women, old and young, with only one valid definition of ideal beauty. Naomi Wolf claimed in 1992, that existing within US culture there is a false perception that only a single set of characteristics represent the ideal beauty (Bissel & Chung 2009).

 Over the centuries men’s hanbok changed very little however, women’s style of dress evolved numerous times. During the 15^th Century hanbok skirts were pleated and full with long upper wear to conceal all the lines and every visible shape of the “Neo-Confucian female body” (Kim 2003, p.100). Hanbok in contemporary society, is no longer a status symbol and worn only during occasional celebrations once or twice a year.

 References:

Korean Culture and Information Service Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. 2010, Hollym International Corp., New Jersey.

Bissell , K. & Chung, J. 2009, ‘Americanised Beauty? Predictors of Perceived Attractiveness from US and South Korean Participants Based on Media Exposure, Ethnicity, and Socio-Cultural Attitudes Toward Ideal Beauty’, Asian Journal of Communciation, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 227-247.

Kim, T. 2003, ‘Neo-Confucian Body Techniques: Women’s Bodies in Korea’s Consumer Society’, Body and Society, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 97-113.

The origin of Hangeul: the Korean alphabet

The Chinese style of writing and calligraphy, Hanja, was known and has been used in Korea for over 2000 years. It was mainly during the years 108BC to 313AD during the Chinese occupation that the form of writing widely spread through the country. However, due to the majority of the population of Korea being illiterate and unable to afford education, a new system of writing was invented in 1446 during the reign of King Sejong (1418-1450). This new form of writing, Hangeul, was a modern, scientific and phonetic alphabet that was easy to learn amongst middle and lower class members of society. Hangeul is comprised of 24 letters- 14 consonants and 10 vowels, and with double consonants and diphthongs (a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves position for another), there are 40 letters overall. the vowels and consonants of the Hangeul are similar to the English alphabet e.g. b.c.d,g and a,e,i,o,u.



     Example of Chinese calligraphy



sourced from http://www.chinavoc.com/arts/calligraphy/fivestyles.asp

Hangeul



References:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/korean.htm
http://www.speakkorean.net/



The Kisaeng part II

Dance with Two Knives by Shin Yun-Bok

 During the half millennium long reign of the Chosôn [also known as Chosun] Dynasty in Korea, there was a class of women whose fate was both appalling and seductive. The kisaeng, sometimes translated as "skilled women" were selected from early age for their beauty, given extensive education in poetry, music, the arts, and dance, trained in the skills of courtesanship, and then assigned as professional entertainers to the court, the high government bureaucracy, and even distant military outposts. Social outcasts unacceptable to Confucian mores, the kisaeng were often little more than prostitutes, and never attained any semblance of status in society. Even the few hundred sijo (three-line poem) they authored were preserved in spite of them by admiring males. Destined forever to fall in love and never able to retain a lover, the kisaeng wrote some of the most exquisite, if simple, lines to convey their pain. (Choe & Contogenis 1997, p.80)

Choe, W. & Contogenis, T. 1997, Songs of the Kisaeng: Courtesan Poetry of the Last Korean Dynasty, Gotterdammerung Online, New York, viewed 10 March 2011, <http://www.gotterdammerung.org/books/reviews/s/songs-of-the-kisaeng.html dec 13 2001>.

The Kisaeng

 Jidokchae in kisaeng described the ideal beauty in the Chosun period. Jidokchae meant intelligence, humility and physical sexual allure as Lee (2009) states that feminine values in the Ancient Korea were more subtle and complex in nature.

 Jidokchae was a rare combination of characteristics and abilities of a kisaeng that defined her beauty. In the society of contemporary Korea, feminine beauty is perceived through Western physicalities and brand consumption. Beauty, which was once defined by a woman’s intelligence in the arts and politics, strong personality and gentle facial features, is now very different to the ideals of an Americanised Korea.

 Inner beauty comprised of a kisaeng’s ability to read and write poems. They were skilled at dancing and had an outstanding musical talent. They were able to study books and have patience and a strong mind to converse on politics and with men as equals. She also had the myungki which, if translated literally into English, means the kisaeng was talented in matters performed behind closed doors in the boudoir.

But what were the characteristics that determined physical beauty in women?

Firstly, the facial features must consist of small eyes, thin eyebrows, a long philtrum, small red lips, pale, blemish-free skin on a round, moon-like face. She must have a thick head of glossy black hair. She must not be weak and have a healthy body shape with small breasts.

Beauty

Portrait of a Beauty - Shin Yun-Bok
sourced from http://detailbox.tistory.com/371

 During the 14th Century Ancient Korea, there were a set of values that determined the ideal feminine beauty in women. Traditional feminine ideals of beauty in the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910) were identified by 3 attributes of the jideokchae in young female entertainers, the kisaeng.

 Jideokchae in “beautiful” kisaeng were a balance of intelligence, humility and sexual appeal (Lee 2009). The factors that informed these feminine ideals in Ancient Korea were the Neo-Confucius religious values, social expectations, importance of reproduction and, most significantly, the repercussion of historical events. It was after the colonization of South Korea by Japan in 1910, that the country was flooded by foreign culture from the West and traditional styles of dress, the hanbok, and ideals of beauty were left forgotten (Lynn 2004).

Lee, H. 2009, ‘Imagining a Feminine Icon: Multiple Metamorphoses of Hwang Chin-I in Cinema and Television’, Korean Studies, vol. 33, pp. 52-68.

Lynn, H. 2004, ‘Fashioning Modernity: Changing Meanings of Clothing in Colonial Korea’, Journal of International and Area Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, pp75-93.

A Scenery on Dano Day

 A painting by legendary Chosun Period Korean artist Shin Yun-Bok, 'A Scenery on Dano Day' is a picturesque landscape of women on Dano Day, the Korean equivalent to May Queen's Day.

 Shin Yun-Bok (written in the Korean order of name, Shin becomes the surname), pen name Hyewon, is one of the 3 greatest artists of genre paintings that existed in the Chosun Dynasty of Ancient Korea (1392~1897). He is also one the most veiled characters in Korean art history as the exact date of his birth and death are unknown, and even sex is under scrutiny.

 This mysterious artist was one of the first works that i referenced when building my concept. He had a distinct style of painting that depicted realistic daily Chosun life which was romantic, and at times erotic, that set him apart from his contemporaries. My collection will be inspired by beautiful scenery from genre paintings such as ‘A Scenery on Dano Day’ by Shin Yun-Bok, these may be manipulated and used as digital prints.

Kim Joon

The original artwork BIRD LAND- ARMANI (2008) by contemporary South Korean artist Kim Joon.

Image from the artist's official website- http://www.kimjoon.co.kr/joon/bbs/board.php?bo_table=j_2008

 Kim Joon (1966-) can also be introduced as tattooist and nude body painter. This artist inspired me to look at the feminine ideal and identify the still existent taboos related to the naked female body through Korean eyes. Kim breaks away from traditional ideals of feminine beauty and fuses the East by West through powerful tattoo-like body painting in his artworks.

Kim Joon completed a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Painting at the renowned Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea. Now are professor, this artist creates never before seen stylish, elegant, and extraordinarily mesmerizing paintings on the nude body. Kim was originally a painter interested in investigating the dynamics and frictions that exist between the physical and psychological realms. However, he became interested in the techniques and beauty of tattooing during his studies at university and later on in the compulsory military service following his graduation.

 Kim describes his creations as paintings as the designs are made by mediums such as water-based markers. The artist still resonates through his artworks his initial fascination and interest in the tenstions of the body and mind. This idea goesn hand in hand with the artists' present fixation with body art. Kim is undoubtedly intrigued by the concept of the everlasting. The permanence of tattoos, tattooing as a means to marking one's soul.