JIN HEE PARK 박진희 I BEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING: HANJI SOBAN

JIN HEE PARK

Seemingly thin, flimsy and delicate, yet remarkably strong, tenacious and enduring! Opposite qualities complementarily conjoined together thrive in Hanji, or the Korean traditional paper, operating as a touchable metaphor of the Korean ethos that combines softness on the surface and persistent toughness in depth. Jinhee Park elevates Hanji’s bearable lightness of being to another horizon by instilling architectural spirit into it so that it can ‘stand up’ against gravity, the constant friend and foe of architectural creation, and that it can shelter human situations beyond being laid on the floor or being pasted onto a given structure. Park’s original works constructed out of Hanji initiate an exciting journey to transform just light paper into furniture pieces that anonymously support a human gathering and what we love-fruits, teas, coffees and snacks, and surely chats. It further sets a path for the future along which the intermediary furniture pieces may again be transcended into the elements of architectural construction, feeble and light yet strong and enduring perhaps to resonate with the duality of the Korean ethos. 

Jin Baek