Search

Art

Jiyoun Kim’s 24 Dokkaebi Stools Are Inspired by Korean Trolls

07.27.17 | By
Jiyoun Kim’s 24 Dokkaebi Stools Are Inspired by Korean Trolls

Metal cylinder seats are about the farthest thing you’d find in a park but creative director Jiyoun Kim of JiyounKim Studio has found a place for them in Hangang Art Park in the city of Seoul with a very fitting, fairy tale-inspired reason. The Hangang Art Park was created by the Seoul government to introduce art into ordinary parks. Four artists including Kim were asked to create installations centered on the topic of suim which means “resting.”

For Kim, he decided to create 24 Dokkaebi Stools. A dokkaebi is the Korean equivalent of a troll in European fairytales except that instead of wreaking havoc, a dokkaebi is a joyful spirit that rewards people for doing good deeds and punishes others for doing bad deeds. The stools are made of stainless steel that have been polished to a mirror finish with eight different colorful gradient tops inspired by the colors of the pine tree forest in different seasons. When the stools are placed in the park, the mirrored stainless steel reflects the nature scenes around it, creating an optical illusion that the colored tops are floating in mid-air – mysterious and magical, like the dokkaebi itself who also can manipulate his appearances.

Learn more about the Hangang Art Park here.

As the Senior Contributing Editor, Vy Yang is obsessed with discovering ways to live well + with intention through design. She's probably sharing what she finds over on Instagram stories. You can also find her at vytranyang.com.