[AS A MATTER OF CRAFT] 'Take a deep breath and be patient': Artist moves mountains with thread

Textile artist Jung So-yun uses thread and a sewing machine to create textured textile layers depicting mountain views, reflecting tranquility and personal experiences. Her works convey a message of patience and resilience during life's challenges.

"Someone is Praying for You" (2021) by Jung So-yun [JUNG SO-YUN]

Editor's note: An old cultural genre in Korea has been gaining new recognition on the global stage: crafts. From finalists at the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize to featured artists in numerous exhibitions overseas, the crafts of Korean artists have, as a matter of fact, become reputable works of art. In this series, the Korea JoongAng Daily interviews contemporary craftspeople who each specialize in a certain medium that uniquely represents the prestige of Korean tradition and culture.

Jung So-yun, 32, is a painter. Except her main medium isn’t paint and a paintbrush — it’s thread and a sewing machine.

Any blank wall instantly becomes a canvas when her closely-knit textile layers depicting a mountain view are hung, reminiscent of sansuhwa, or traditional Korean landscape paintings of mountains and water. A lingering sense of peacefulness and sublimity comes from the works, something that was derived from 2019, the year Jung got married.

One example of sansuhwa, or traditional Korean landscape paintings of mountains and water, is “Mongyudowondo” (1447) by An Gyeon, a painter from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). [JOONGANG DB]

She grew up in Seoul, and for the first time in her life, she moved out of the city that year with her husband to the rural Yecheon County in North Gyeongsang, and felt that her entire environment had changed.

“I was standing in a vast, remote field, surrounded by huge mountains, which was a spiritual experience for me. I felt tranquil, rather than feeling small and weak,” Jung recalled as the time she first got the idea for the sansuhwa series, titled “Someone is Praying for You,” in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily last month. “And I wanted to reflect that into my work.”

Tilt your head to the left, and the ridges of the sansuhwa works also resemble the side profiles of people. To Jung, this was inspired by her dad, who died when she was younger.

“Just even the vague idea that someone is looking after me was comforting,” she said. “I thought it would be something everyone else could resonate with, that having a specific person that they believe in and rely on would be enough to get through their own troubles.”

"Someone is Praying for You" (2021) by Jung So-yun, as seen from the side [JUNG SO-YUN]

Jung was selected by the Korea Craft and Design Foundation (KCDF) in 2020 to hold a solo exhibition at the KCDF Gallery in Insa-dong in Jongno District, central Seoul, which was the beginning of her career. The gallery has a large display window, and it was the perfect opportunity for Jung to fill it with her first mountainous installation.

She has held both solo and group exhibitions in numerous art venues since, including the annual Craft Trend Fair, Seoul Museum, Topohaus Gallery and Artside Temporary, which held her latest show, “Disconnect from the Outside World,” last year.

Jung was shortlisted as one of 30 finalists for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2022, which was exhibited in the Seoul Museum of Craft Art at the time. The show, of course, featured “Someone is Praying for You.”

“I got the name from a hymn I like,” Jung said. “The lyrics are consoling. I’ve always wanted to use that name, and I thought that the sansuhwa series would be the perfect fit.”

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Textile artist Jung So-yun [JUNG SO-YUN]

Q. Your main work is the “Someone is Praying for You” series. What is it about?A. I was going through a lot of emotional distress when I first started this series. I had some miscarriages, so it was really tough for my husband and I. But over the years, the meaning of this series changed significantly — we eventually had two kids, and we’re now in a much better place than before. Parenthood has really soothed me, even though it’s not easy taking care of kids all the time. While I was creating new works for the “Disconnect from the Outside World,” exhibition, I was pregnant with my second child. In the past, I had worked on my crafts to sort of alleviate and forget the anxious feelings I had back then, but now, I feel much more at ease. If I knew that everything would turn out for the better, I don’t think I would have been that stressed in the first place. People have said that the atmosphere of my works have changed too, that they’re much more cheerful than they used to be.

"Breast I" (2019) by Jung So-yun [JUNG SO-YUN]

"Breast II" (2019) by Jung So-yun [JUNG SO-YUN]

Another series of yours, “Breast,” takes the form of a person’s face or being cradled in someone’s arms. What’s the story behind that? While I got inspiration for “Praying” from nature, “Breast” has always been about moments in which I found comfort. It was also around the “Breast” series that my crafting technique changed, to be filled with more density and depth. Before that, my works were more linear and looked more like pencil sketches.

I changed my technique after I received feedback from previous exhibitions that the works appear a bit thin and that it would be more difficult to fill up the large, empty spaces of the venue. Layering the chunks of threads on top of each other would therefore help the work appear more voluminous.

Jung So-yun works in her studio. [JUNG SO-YUN]

What is your general work process? I do a lot of sketching and take photographs of the natural scenery near my home. That’s where I usually get my ideas. I always have to decide on what I’m going to “draw” with thread before I start the sewing process, and that’s what takes the longest. After that, the progress just skyrockets.

One of the main materials I work with is monofilament thread, which is commonly used in fishing. It’s transparent, made from nylon, and known to be firm and stretchy. I work with a sewing machine and stitch the thread onto alginate foil, which is a type of fabric that melts in water. I sew according to the outline I drew onto the alginate foil, and the needle of the sewing machine is able to freely move 360 degrees, so I really can “draw” anything. It’s the same way you sew embroidery onto a T-shirt. I make different contrasts of the entire work by dyeing the threads different colors or controlling the density of the sewing.

Finally, I put the entire thing in water, which will eventually leave just the thread.

Monofilament thread used in Jung So-yun's works [JUNG SO-YUN]

A textile craft by Jung So-yun that is a work in progress. The cloth-like material is alginate foil, which melts in water after the sewing is completed. [JUNG SO-YUN]

What makes thread special as a material? Since my works aren’t made from natural fiber, they don’t break or rot even when you put them away in a box for a long time. And they’re easy to store, too. All you have to do is fold them up like you would any other piece of clothing, so they’re lightweight and not too bulky to carry. Despite how they look, they don’t get tangled up easily either.

An installation view of "Disconnect from the Outside World," Jung So-yun's solo exhibition at Artside Temporary in Jongno District, central Seoul, from last year [JUNG SO-YUN]

What is the ultimate message you want to convey through your works? I want to ask that we all just take a deep breath and be patient when enduring the rough patches in our lives. It’s something I’ve repeatedly told myself — in my case, when I wanted to have kids. I first started the “Breast” series around the time my husband and I were trying to conceive. But after it all passed and I held my baby for the very first time, all the pain and negative emotions instantly disappeared. It was all worth experiencing such hardships, knowing that I was strongly destined to meet this baby. I felt the same with my second child. So if everything already happens with fate, I think it’s okay to try and distance myself from any negative feelings and to just wait patiently for it to heal over time. I have a desire to naturally convey this message and traces of my life into my future works.

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