Korean masters at Tent: lacquer and Najon

The Korean display is, for me, one of the highlights of Tent due to the dazzling mastery of craftsmanship.

This year, the exhibition Constancy & Change in Korean Traditional Craft included a set of wooden lacquered bowls by Park Gang Yong + Jung Sang-gil. Not only are the bowls carved to fit snugly in a container, they are also finished in wonderfully rich blood-red lacquer.

Notice too the shadowplay below reminding me of vertebrae.

Choi Sang Hoon is a master of Najon, the art of inlaying mother-of-pearl in lacquer, as these small boxes attest.

I didn’t take a close-up of the boxes above, but here is a detail of the rim from a bowl, another piece, showing tiny inlaid fragments, like stones in topsoil.