Hanbok Series | Transformation, Comfort Women, Harmony – Art by Jaclyn Bae
Hanbok Series — Transformation, Memory, and Harmony
Contemporary Hanbok artworks exploring cultural identity, trauma, resilience, and harmony.
Artist: Jaclyn Bae
1. Transformation
From a Western linen shirt to a reimagined Korean Hanbok.
Transformation reinterprets the cultural symbolism of the traditional Hanbok. This piece is constructed from handmade paper, created through a long process of tearing and pulping a Ralph Lauren linen shirt once worn by the artist’s husband. The Western garment was transformed into paper and then reshaped into a Korean silhouette. Verses from Psalm 23 were inscribed onto the Jeogori, echoing the artist’s personal transition from Buddhism to Christianity
The work becomes a metaphor for identity, heritage, and inner transformation — bridging two cultures, two beliefs, and two versions of self. The act of deconstructing the Western garment and reforming its fibers into the distinct, flowing silhouette of the Hanbok Jeogori is a powerful metaphor for cultural reconciliation. It physically transforms the material of a previous identity into a vessel for a new, blended self. The linen, often associated with purity and simple endurance, heightens the spiritual theme. Furthermore, the inscription of the Bible verses onto the paper is not just text, but a meditative, permanent commitment. This process elevates the Jeogori from mere clothing to a sacred skin, a visible testament to the artist’s profound inner transformation and the weaving together of her complex cultural and spiritual heritage.
Material: Handmade paper from linen shirt
2. Comfort Women
A remembrance of the girls who lost their childhood.
This Hanbok confronts the tragic history of the Korean Comfort Women, created from coarse hemp — a material traditionally associated with funerals and hardship in Korean culture. The garment is burned, cut, distressed, and stitched to symbolize violence, rupture, and survival.
The artist photographed her fourteen-year-old daughter wearing the Hanbok — the same age as many victims — underscoring the proximity of history and the fragility of innocence. The material choice of coarse hemp (sambe), traditionally reserved for mourning attire in Korean culture, immediately establishes a somber, sacred context for the work. The visible damage—the burning, cutting, and distressing—is an intentional, powerful act that transforms the fabric into a direct embodiment of historical brutality and trauma. However, the subsequent, deliberate stitching and reconstruction of the garment symbolize the enduring strength, resilience, and survival of the victims. This Hanbok serves as a moving memorial, transforming trauma into a permanent, visible act of remembrance.
Material: Hemp fabric
3. Harmony I
East meets West, old meets new — harmony in modern life.
Harmony is constructed from denim worn by the artist’s own family. By merging the softness of Korean silhouettes with the casual texture of Western denim, the work symbolizes cultural blending, generational connection, and personal history. The use of denim, a material synonymous with American industry and casual Western wear, provides a stark and compelling contrast to the elegant, flowing lines of the traditional Hanbok silhouette. This textile fusion goes beyond mere aesthetics; it functions as a powerful, wearable commentary on bicultural existence. The denim, carrying the personal "wear and tear" of the artist's own family, transforms the garment into a chronicle of generational history. It shows that true harmony is not the erasure of differences, but the comfortable, resilient interweaving of seemingly opposing cultural elements—the past and the present, the East and the West—into a new, cohesive form of self-expression.
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