“It’s a big milestone,” Jonathan Anderson tells me of the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize’s fifth edition, which was unveiled today in Seoul, South Korea. The Loewe creative director has just arrived in the city and is holding court in the library of the newly opened Seoul Museum of Craft Art (SeMoCA), the first dedicated to preserving Korean craftworks and the site of this year’s prize and exhibition. “From being at Loewe, it’s something I’m most proud of,” he adds. Just across the corridor, 30 exquisite pieces have been arranged in a neat loop. Photographs do not do them justice: Anderson makes note of an impossibly delicate basket woven from thin horsehair by Dahye Jeong, as well as a narrow vessel coiled freehand from strips of vegetable-tanned leather by Junsu Kim that looks like geological strata, a technique he had never seen before. They are works from two of seven Korean artists who made the short list.
Not that Anderson is surprised. “I’ve always loved Korea, and each year we have a lot of finalists from Korea,” he says. “What’s amazing is the protection of craft here and the level is so high. I want to hold [the Prize] in countries that appreciate craft on a level that is seen as an art form and not just a craft form.” Anderson and the jury seemed particularly pleased to appoint Dahye Jeong as this year’s winner. “It is just so magical,” he says of her work. “It holds a structure, but at the same time it’s incredibly light. There’s movement in it, but it’s very resilient.”
.jpg)
The events largely unfolded around Jongno-gu, a district in the north of Seoul whose neighborhoods are known for modern and traditional arts and filled with crafts studios. To the northwest, master paper weaver Youngsoon Lee spends six months twisting bits of mulberry paper, sourced from antique shops, to weave into intricate baskets using another 500-year-old process. Further north, in the shadow of a mountain, the ceramicist Hyejeong Kim demonstrates how she kicks the pottery wheel to form concentric shapes, then wraps metal netting around them to create breaks and punctures that distort that perfect form. “The way a lump of clay becomes a bowl is like flowers blooming when you throw them on the wheel,” she says, handing out cups of Korean cinnamon tea and dried persimmons she has prepared with her mother.
For the first time since the pandemic, guests had flown in from Finland, from Spain, from New York, to participate in the Prize, including contemporary jewelry maker Julia Obermaier from Germany and stoneware and ceramics artist Andile Dyalvane from South Africa, who received special mentions. Among them was Kyoto-based artist Genta Ishizuka, the 2019 prize winner, whose organic lacquerware sculptures were beautifully reimagined as gold bangles and minaudière for Loewe’s fall 2022 show. It is another route through which Anderson melds fashion with culture and craft. “Through the foundation, fashion can communicate in a different way,” he says. “People are starting to realize the power of craft as an expression, and I think it’s important to highlight that and that young people are encouraged to support it.”
The Loewe Foundation Craft Prize 2022 exhibition will be on view at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art from July 1 through July 30, 2022.