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This work was developed as part of a commission by the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation and originates from research on Banchado of King Jeongjo’s Royal Return Procession (Hwanyeohaengnyeoldo), a historical painting depicting the royal procession returning to the palace during the Joseon Dynasty. Within the procession, decorative motifs appear on royal garments, palanquins, ceremonial objects, and flags, visualising royal authority and social order while reflecting the political symbolism of the period. Drawing from these elements, the work reinterprets Dancheong patterns from Geunjeongjeon and Gyotaejeon in Gyeongbokgung Palace, alongside symbolic motifs such as dragons, phoenixes, peonies, and clouds, through a contemporary visual language.

Particular attention is given to the floral structures and radial expansions repeatedly found in Dancheong ornamentation. Motifs such as lotus flowers, peonies, and chrysanthemums function not merely as decorative representations of nature, but as visual systems organising values of authority, auspiciousness, and order. Through paper-cutting techniques and modular structures, the work deconstructs and expands these motifs, examining how traditional patterns are repeated, transmitted, and transformed over time.

The sculptural structure draws inspiration from Western party “honeycomb decorations.” Their expandable, lightweight forms reveal principles of repetition and accumulation through flexible modular systems. By combining this temporary decorative structure with the symbolic visual language of Korean palace ornamentation, the work intersects boundaries between different eras and cultures, ritual and decoration, authority and play.

Hanji is used as the primary material. Rather than treating Hanji as a traditional medium, the work approaches it as a material embedded with accumulated labor, technical knowledge, and historical memory. The paper’s delicate texture and translucency create constantly shifting surfaces through light and shadow, transforming static ornamentation into a living spatial experience.

Rather than preserving or reproducing tradition, the work reveals processes of collision and negotiation between different cultural structures and visual systems. Through this, traditional ornamentation emerges not as a fixed heritage, but as a contemporary structure continuously reconfigured and renegotiated across changing contexts.

Material: Hanji paper
Size: 180x180x400cm / 174x174x400cm / 180x80x400cm

Commissioned by the Cultural Heritage Administration and Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation,

Exhibited:
2025, Dongdaemun Design Plaza Museum
Seoul, South Korea