'Hangeul Wall' to be unveiled at New York Korean Cultural Center

A striking 22-meter-high, 8-meter-wide "Hangeul Wall" will be unveiled in Manhattan, New York, on Wednesday (local time). The massive installation, created by renowned artist Kang Ik-joong in collaboration with the Korean Cultural Center New York, features "life mottos" submitted by over 7,000 individuals from more than 50 countries, all written in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. The Cultural Center hailed the project as a "global public art piece themed around Hangeul," arriving roughly 600 years after King Sejong introduced the script.

During a visit to the center on Thursday, the final touches were being added to the installation. Since the official opening of its new building in June, the center has worked closely with Kang over the past year to create this Hangeul-themed artwork, which now adorns the interior walls.

Kang has been a prominent figure in New York's art scene for over 40 years, and held a joint exhibition with the late Paik Nam June in the 1990s. He is well-known for his installations that feature individual Hangeul characters etched onto 3-inch-square panels, later assembled into large-scale artworks. His work, often referred to as "Kang Ik-jung style," uses vibrant colors to evoke a sense of traditional Korean aesthetics.

Kim Chun-soo, director of the Korean Cultural Center New York, explained the global scope of the project: "To create an artwork that encapsulates the world within the framework of Hangeul, we launched a special website in May where people could submit their personal 'life mottos.' These submissions, initially written in their native languages, were translated into Hangeul, and participants could color the designs as they wished."


Woo-Sun Lim imsun@donga.com