Menu

  • Home
  • Gallery
  • Stories
  • What's on
  • Collect art fair
  • Directory
    • Overview
    • Supporting craft businesses
    • Opportunities
    • Join the directory
    • Craft business resources
    • Crafting Business programme for makers
    • Brexit advice
    • Overview
    • How we work
    • Get making
    • Craft careers
    • Education
    • Craft education pledge
    • Participation
    • Young Craft Citizens
  • Crafts magazine
    • Overview
    • About the collections
    • How to hire and borrow
    • Exhibitions
    • Overview
    • Our work
    • Our team
    • Governance
    • Working here
    • History
    • Contact us
    • Research and policy
    • Diversity and inclusion
    • Craft UK
    • Press
    • Overview
    • Appeals and projects
    • Patrons
    • A gift in your will
    • Corporate partnerships
    • Our supporters and partners

Quick Links

  • Opportunities
Home
Login
Crafts CouncilStories

How lacquer artist Park Sung-youl is breaking the mold


ByYun Suh-young

5 February 2021

The Collect art fair newcomer pushes the boundaries of an age-old craft


Yun Suh-young

5 February 2021

  • Profile
  • Collect 2021

Inborn Ott-007 , by Park Sung-Youl, 2020, ottchil (Korean natural lacquer), will feature at Lloyd Choi Gallery’s virtual Collect booth. Photo: Dain Kim

Tradition can give rise to innovation: the way things are (or used to be) has often inspired makers to rethink craft techniques. One trailblazer in the field of lacquer art is Korean artist Park Sung-youl, who will be showcasing his Bonyeon series virtually at Collect art fair this year with Lloyd Choi Gallery.

Lacquerware craft typically involves varnishing an existing form (in wood or steel, for example) with lacquer. Instead, Park has developed a unique process that involves stretching lacquer to become the artwork itself. ‘Lacquer has so many different characteristics,’ says Park, a 2020 Loewe Craft Prize finalist. ‘It is adhesive and malleable. I focused on the flexibility and elasticity of lacquer and stretched it like a long string.’


  • Park Sung-youl. Courtesy: Lloyd Choi Gallery

  • Park Sung-youl applies coloured lacquer to a clay mold. Courtesy: the artist

Atop a clay mold, he applies over one hundred layers of coloured lacquer ‘strings’. Only three layers (using three different colours) are applied per day to prevent them from getting tangled. These are left to dry for a few days before the next layers are applied. When the final layers have set, Park removes the clay mold leaving the lacquer form intact. This meticulous process takes between two or three months.


Discover more inspiring makers

Visit the virtual 2021 Collect art fair

‘Despite the complicated procedure involved in painting lacquer, people fail to appreciate the work of lacquer artist in the final product because they only see the form – the object itself,’ Park explains. ‘I thought it was a pity that those efforts are overlooked and lost beneath the final glaze. So I wondered if this was the only way to use ottchil (lacquer). I wanted to do something different and found a way to create forms solely with ottchil.’


Inborn Ott-002, by Park Sung-Youl, 2020, ottchil (Korean natural lacquer) with silver leaf and gold leaf. They will be shown by Lloyd Choi Gallery at Collect 2021. Photo: Dain Kim

The Korean word bonyeon translates to ‘natural state’ in English and reflects Park’s interest in drawing out the material properties of lacquer, fully utilising its flexible qualities. ‘The most difficult steps of this process are stretching the lacquer and removing it from the mold,’ adds Park. ‘Although lacquer has elasticity, it’s not as stretchy as gum. How to stretch it as thinly as possible without snapping it is my secret.’

This method has never been attempted by any other artist in this medium. For traditional lacquer artists, Park is, literally, breaking the mold.

Collect 2021 will take place online on Artsy.net from 26 February, with works on view and commissions available until 24 March. Over the coming weeks, we’re meeting the makers making their debut at the fair – follow the pre-fair action online and on Instagram at @collectartfair and #collect2021.


Share

  • Facebook 
  • Twitter 
  • Whatsapp 
  • Email 
  • Pinterest 
  • ...

Read more

  • Collect art fair

    • Collect 2021
  • Collect 2021 exhibitors

    Lloyd Choi Gallery

    • Collect 2021
  • Stories

    Why jeweller Ella Fearon-Low is turning over a new leaf

    • Collect 2021
    • Jewellery

Stay informed and inspired

Select an option to receive a newsletter

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Crafts Council
44a Pentonville Road
London N1 9BY

reception@craftscouncil.org.uk
+44 (0)20 7806 2500

Reg. charity no. 280956

  • Our work
  • Our team
  • Privacy policy