A bandaji is a traditional Korean chest used for storage, primarily during the Joseon Dynasty. With hinged doors and intricate metalwork, it’s one of the most commonly found furniture in any Korean household.
Kim Hyunhee is a contemporary artist who uses traditional Korean furniture (ham, duiju, etc) and creates her own interpretation. Instead of using wood and metal typically found in these furnitures though, she uses translucent acrylic material.
https://www.sayhito-atlas.com/article/hyunhee-kim-studio-visit-seoul
Particularly inspired by gyubang, a room exclusively for women in traditional Korean houses, Kim addresses social and gender stereotypes through her work.
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https://www.kimhoney.com/honey3
Kim believes traditional furniture strongly represents men’s virtue because of the metalwork and bat patterns that show longevity and prosperity. The walls and panels create an enclosed space, which she thinks represent women’s lives in the past. To symbolize more representation of women, she removed all panels and only used frames.
Her time as an exchange student in Germany allowed her to experience new perspectives and cultures, and this helped shape her identity and ultimately her art style. From the start, Kim had always wanted to incorporate themes of Korea, women, and moderness. To do so, she started with steel, the most commonly used material in modern art, instead of traditional wood and expanded from there.
https://www.sayhito-atlas.com/article/hyunhee-kim-studio-visit-seoul
Kim’s White Nostalgia series is her second series where she focused more on herself as a person. The box is made of acrylic, so it’s slightly less transparent. The phrase “take out the memories” is a Korean saying that means looking back on the past, and it motivated her to create a piece that symbolizes nostalgia especially as she is a very sentimental person.
White Nostalgia
Today, she is living and working in Seoul. Kim Hyunhee has done many exhibitions around Korea and won many awards. You can find more of her work on her instagram at @keemhoney (https://www.instagram.com/keemhoney/). See some below:
White Nostalgia series no.3 (2021)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgJc0BeOdOK/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd9efv0P5yT/ (2022)