Sin Yeri's studio is named *Dammong* — faint dream. Ten years as chief designer of hwagak craft, now carrying minhwa traditions into contemporary painting.
Dammong (淡夢) is faint dream.
Sin Yeri gave this name to her minhwa craft studio. Faint, clear, slowly bleeding dream. Resembling the speed at which she lays bunchae on hanji, and the grain of the work.
Ten Years at a Hwagak Studio
Sin Yeri graduated from Kyungwon University (now Gachon University) Textile Art in 2003.
Then ten years. Chief designer at Han Chun-seop Hwagak Crafts, a Gyeonggi Intangible Cultural Heritage Hwagakjang workshop. Hwagak craft is a Joseon tradition of painting on thinly pressed ox-horn paper (gakji) and adhering it to wood surfaces. When pigment seeps into the thin, translucent gakji, a unique luster emerges as light passes through. Starting from textile art and moving to an intangible cultural-heritage workshop, her ten years were a time of embodying the physicality of tradition.
The Beginning of Dammong
Leaving the career of hwagak chief designer behind, Sin Yeri opened the minhwa craft studio Dammong. As Dammong's founder, she has participated in the Republic of Korea National Art Special Invitational Exhibition, the SNAF Seongnam Art Fair Artists Exhibition, and group shows of Mokwonhoe.
Moving from an artisan at a traditional workshop to an artist under her own name isn't simple. She must retain the skills honed in the workshop while bringing them out again in her own language. The name itself sits at that boundary. A place where the faint luster of hwagak and the of minhwa meet at one person's fingertip.
