조대용
Jo Daeyong

“What if the petals be shed,
Should the breeze be blamed?

The stars hung beyond the bamboo-screen
Are put out one by one.

The distant hills loom nearer
After the Philomel’s song…”

—excerpt from “Shedding of the Petals” by poet Cho Jihoon

Jo Daeyong is a master artisan and a holder of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage of yeomjang, or traditional bamboo blind making. He is a fourth-generation artisan who continues the tradition of making Tongyeong blinds, a craft inherited from his great-grandfather. Tongyeong has long been famous for its fine bamboo blinds (seryeom), made by thinly splitting bamboo and weaving the pieces together with silk thread. These screens are crafted by weaving finely split bamboo with thin silk thread, with large ones showing refined elegance and small ones boasting cozy charm, each in their own way. In particular, patterns made with Chinese characters such as hui (囍, Double Happiness), gil (吉, Fortune), a (亞, Longevity), and the hexagonal tortoiseshell and lattice patterns, exude an ornate yet simple and elegant charm. Jo Daeyong’s blinds, famous for their delicate and elegant designs, have been recognized worldwide for their required labor and skill and have been exhibited in countries such as the United States, Japan, and France. To preserve the essential charm of the blinds, Jo colors the blinds and their patterns with hues in the same color family. Although not noticeable at first glance, the patterns subtly appear and disappear depending on the angle at which the light penetrates, creating an appearance with the elegance of a veiled woman and the mystery of a reclusive scholar. In this exhibition, Jo Daeyong presents, through the functionality of Korean traditional blinds—a craft preserved through generations—the role of a wall that connects and communicates past and present, separating and dividing space without enclosing it.