Korean crafts prove their worth in horsehairs

Korea's crafts prove their aesthetic value day by day as they continue to be recognized on the global stage. Dahye Jeong, a 33-year-old artisan who specializes in using horsehair to weave baskets, is the winner of the 2022 Loewe Foundation..

Dahye Jeong, a 33-year-old artisan who specializes in using horsehair to weave into baskets, is the winner of the 2022 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize for “A Time of Sincerity” (2021). [LOEWE FOUNDATION]

Korea’s crafts prove their aesthetic value day by day as they continue to be recognized on the global stage.

Dahye Jeong, a 33-year-old artisan who specializes in using horsehair to weave baskets, is the winner of the 2022 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize for her piece, “A Time of Sincerity” (2021).

The Loewe Foundation Craft Prize is an annual crafts award founded by 37-year-old Jonathan Anderson, creative director of the Spanish luxury fashion house JW Anderson, in 2016 to “celebrate excellence, artistic merit and newness in modern craftsmanship.”

Jeong is the first Korean to ever win the award.

An installation view of the 2022 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art in Jongno District, central Seoul — from left: Minwook Kim's ″Instinctive″ (2021), Dahye Jeong's ″A Time of Sincerity″ (2021) and Domingos Totora's ″Amago Sculpture″ (2019). [SHIN MIN-HEE]

“[Jeong’s] basket, made from horsehair in a 500-year-old hat-making technique, had previously been considered a lost skill in Korea,” the Loewe Foundation said in a statement. “The jury celebrated Jeong’s dedication to reviving and updating the tradition, one of the key aims of the Craft Prize, as well as the delicate perfection, transparency and lightness of the work.”

The Seoul Museum of Craft Art (SeMoCA) in Jongno District, central Seoul, is holding an exhibition of this year’s shortlisted works for the 2022 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize until the end of July.

Among the 30 finalists from all around the world, there were seven Korean craftspeople — Jeong, Junsu Kim, Minwook Kim, Myungtaek Jung, Sangwook Huh, Soyun Jung and Yongjin Chung — which is the largest number of Koreans to ever make the list.

Yongjin Chung's ″Wavy Inverted Bowl″ (2020) [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Since its first edition in 2017, only a handful of Korean craftspeople had been shortlisted for the prize each year: two in 2017, three in 2018, four in 2019 and six in 2021. The 2020 prize was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“One thing that’s agreed upon among the expert panel whenever submitted crafts are evaluated is how Korean crafts are outstandingly fresh and novel,” said Cho Hye-young, an appointed commissioner for the prize and secretary general at the Korea Craft & Design Foundation. “To us, crafts are a form of art. It’s not something that should be deemed unfamiliar; it’s already been part of people’s everyday lives for a very long time.”

Soyun Jung's “Someone Is Praying for You” (2021), on the wall, and Pao Hui Kao's ″Urushi Paper Pleats Bench″ (2021) [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Jeong’s horsehair crafts were considered original and one-of-a-kind, as the material is unprecedented in the crafts world. “A Time of Sincerity,” a basket made by weaving fine horsehairs into intricate, tight diamond patterns, gives off a natural bronze color, and the shadow made by the light shining upon it is just as precise and delicate.

According to SeMoCA, Jeong’s horsehair crafts were inspired by her affection for traditional comb-pattern pottery.

Sangwook Huh's ″Vessel with Plantain Surface Decoration″ (2019) [LOEWE FOUNDATION]

Other craftspeople, for example, Jung and his “Someone Is Praying for You” (2021), an installation craft made from monofilament fibers that resembles a landscape ink-and-wash painting when hung on the wall, and Huh with his “Vessel with Plantain Surface Decoration” (2019), a buncheong ware made from clay, white slip and silver lustre, are considered to have contributed to introducing Korean elements to other parts of the world.

The 2022 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize exhibition continues until July 31. SeMoCA is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is free.

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