Kim Ji-soo joined The Korea Times in 2006, and worked on such desks as culture and politics and is currently a member of the Editorial Board. Previous workplaces include The Korea Herald and the Korea JoongAng Daily.
Branding expert to open lacquerware museum in November
Sohn Hye-won, CEO of Crosspoint, a branding and design company, said that she considers it her mission to reinterpret the traditional Korean lacquerware. She will open a museum dedicated to Korean lacquerware in her gallery/office building near Mt. Nam in Seoul on Nov. 1. / Courtesy of Sohn Hye-won
By Kim Ji-soo
Branding expert Sohn Hye-won, 59, has a special storage in the basement of her gallery/office situated along the meandering driveway on Mt. Nam, which stands in the center of Seoul.
In this space, she stores a roomful of various Korean “najeonchilgi” or traditional lacquerware inlaid with mother-of-pearl, ranging from a closet to boxes and a small Korean table, all kept under a certain temperature and humidity.
In the same way that the plants in her terrace “talk” to her, she says, “Once you step in, you can feel the lacquerware talk to you,” said Sohn, as she surveyed the room.
Her heart, however, lies in a far smaller room, which she calls her “coffee and prayer room.” The room is located where a large pine tree used to stand, which she has since uprooted to make way for the small space that she enters every day.
Sohn Hye-won’s most inner storage space at her gallery/office in Mt. Nam that hosts valuable lacquerware works.
“See that cabinet there? It’s from Queen Min’s family home,” she said. “I recently acquired these large boxes at Christie’s (auction house),” she said. Queen Min is also known as Empress Myeongseong, the official wife of King Gojong (1863-1907) of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), who was killed in 1895 by Japanese assassins. Sohn also showed a work by lacquerware artist Jeon Seong-gyu that she believes would become a cultural asset one day.
Sohn, CEO of the marketing and branding company Crosspoin, now wants to share a part of the traditional Korean crfats with the public by opening a museum dedicated to lacquerware in November.
Making lacquerware involves three basic materials — mother-of-pearl (or seashells), lacquer and wood. The process involves intensive stages of making the frame, coating the lacquer and repeated drying and coating before the inlaying of the mother-of-pearl designs. The last step is repeated grinding, lacquering and polishing.
She said since 2006, she has acquired some 300 pieces of traditional lacquerware.
“On the first floor (of the museum), I will feature about five artists a year,” said Sohn, adding that the basement will show her collections and feature a special reservation-only exhibition of her storage collection.
Hearing her speak about her collections and her museum plans, it seems hard to believe Sohn is actually a prominent marketing and branding consultant.She had spent the night before the interview preparing for a presentation for a client. Sohn is known as having the “Midas” touch in the field, creating well-known brand names for products and services such as Chamisul Soju, an alcoholic beverage; Hillstate apartments; and Dimchae, a kimchi refrigerator company. Her successful career as a branding expert has allowed her to acquire najeonchilgi. For her the work with lacquerware is an effort to revive the genius quality of the traditional crafts by sponsoring it and giving it modern interpretation.
“Korean lacquerware is a story of the material,” said Sohn.
“It’s amazing to discover that our ancestors thought of pasting the inner lining of the abalone onto woodenware using lacquer,” she said.
She said she wants to revive and reinterpret the Korean lacquerware that has dominated during the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392), along with porcelain, which unfortunately is not as popular as the latter today. Najeonchilgi was synonymous with wealth until the 1970s-1980s, after which its popularity has quickly declined as tastes changed from the traditional Korean to the Western style.
She was working on a logo for the southeastern city of Tongyeong in 2006 when she and a city official visited the workshop of Song Bang-ung, a master craftsman of najeonchilgi.
“Song started yelling and berating the city government official for bringing a guest to the workshop,” Sohn said, disappointed that traditional crafts aren’t held by Koreans in high esteem.
“The official ran away, leaving me to sincerely apologize to Song, and I asked him what the city can do for the craft, said Sohn.
While at the workshop, she also saw a work of Song that she wanted to purchase, a small box. The artisan said it was something he wouldn’t sell, but she convinced him otherwise by suggesting that she would purchase the box for 15 million won and six of his other works, for a total of 70 million won.
Since then, she began collecting more pieces of lacquerware, pouring 6 billion won of her earnings as a branding expert. Her collecting is an attempt to create a market for these superb works, the demand for which has been on a decline.
“The artisans began to mass produce low-priced lacquerware,” she said, a result of the lack of a market. Then, in 2012, she founded a company, Highhand, which sells high-quality, everyday lacquerware. She spent 700 million won for that business, turning it to black in just one year and eight months. Now, she wants to create a museum in which she can show the works and archive documents about artisans and their works through exhibitions.
Master craftsman Song Bang-ung’s box inlaid with mother-of-pearl. This is the work that first got Sohn Hye-won hooked on Korean traditional lacquerware.
Jeon Seong-gyu’s table that sits in the inner storage space of Sohn’s gallery/office in Seoul.
Oh Wang-taek’s Jeonju wardrobe with mother-of-pearl peony designs
Sohn said she is confident that Korean lacquerware will take off globally. Her belief stems from her 40 years of experience in the marketing and branding field, as well as her experience directing Korean crafts and design exhibitions in collaboration with the government since 2009. This year, she directed the “Constancy & Change in Korean Traditional Craft 2014” exhibition in La Triennale di Milano, a design museum in Milan,Italy. Last year, she directed another exhibition at the Milan International Furniture Fair.
When asked if her approach of first purchasing noted artisans works, creating a wider market or distribution channel by establishing a company and then supporting artisans would work in reviving other traditional crafts, Sohn said “No.”
“Who would foolishly pour their money into a business that doesn’t generate much profit?” she said.
Nevertheless, she felt it her mission to nurture aspiring talents who might lack the means for better education or better working conditions in order to truly shine. “I feel this with the lacquerware artisans,” Sohn said.
“It gives me pleasure, a sense of triumph knowing that the lacquerware artisans are picking up their tools again,” she said.
Her goal is not only to exhibit Korean lacquerware at overseas museums but to have the museums purchase the lacquerware.
“My work on lacquerware, for me, is like bungee jumping. I know I won’t die,” Sohn said. “Believe me, it will work,” she said.