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| Installation view of the exhibition, "Bulgari Serpenti 75 Years of Infinite Tales," at Kukje Gallery in central Seoul / Courtesy of Bulgari Korea, Kukje Gallery |
By Park Han-sol
It was 1948 when the image of a coiled snake first slithered into the design of a Bulgari watch. Since then, for over seven decades, the Italian luxury fashion house has put one distinctive spin on the reptile after another, embracing the motif in its endless product line of bracelets, rings, handbags and necklaces.
And in celebration of the 75th anniversary of its best-selling Serpenti, Bulgari has brought the mythical serpent into the realm of art through its series of collaborations with contemporary creatives around the world.
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| A selection of Bulgari's Serpenti bracelet watches featured in a 1970s advertisement / Courtesy of Bulgari Korea |
The exhibition, "Bulgari Serpenti 75 Years of Infinite Tales," mounted at Kukje Gallery in central Seoul, presents the house's jewelry collection and archive alongside the works of six prominent women artists from Korea and France. Seoul is the fifth stop for the luxury brand's creative collaboration after Madrid, London, New York and Shanghai.
Five Korean creators ― Chun Kyung-ja (1924-2015), Choi Wook-kyung (1940-85), Hong Seung-hye, Choi Jae-eun and Ham Kyung-ah ― and French-American painter and sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) each deliver their own visual rendition of the symbolic reptile at the gallery, inviting viewers to "explore the icon's infinite metamorphosis," according to Bulgari.
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| Chun Kyung-ja's "Tangled Snakes" (1969), left, and Niki de Saint Phalle's "Pouf Serpent Jaune" (1994) / Courtesy of Bulgari Korea, Kukje Gallery |
The serpent remains one of the most revisited motifs in Chun's paintings, including her colorful "Tangled Snakes" (1969) on display at the exhibit. For the artist, the creature was an object of fear and resentment since childhood as she associated it with the scarring loss of her loved ones and failed relationship. The incorporation of snakes into the canvas in her darkest hour was Chun's subversive way of finding beauty in the most unlikely place.
Similarly, Saint Phalle's "Pouf Serpent Jaune" (1994) and ten other sculptures, paintings and drawings on view at the show indicate that pythons were an ever-recurring image for the creator ― an icon that she used to sublimate her repressed feelings of aggression and trauma into vibrant art.
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| Hong Seung-hye's "Trop Long" (2023), left, and Choi Jae-eun's "Meeting the Morning Dew" (2023) / Courtesy of Bulgari Korea, Kukje Gallery |
Other pieces include Ham's embroidery series, born from her collaboration with anonymous artisans based in North Korea, and Choi Wook-kyung's snake-like sculptural installation made with a tree branch wrapped around in multihued threads.
For her newly commissioned piece, "Trop Long" (2023), Hong marries her signature pixelated human figure with a slithering wooden serpent, while Choi Jae-eun transfers the image of a golden reptile onto a paper lotus lantern in her "Meeting the Morning Dew" (2023).
"Bulgari Serpenti 75 Years of Infinite Tales" runs through July 31 at Kukje Gallery.
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