Make Your Movement

What is an object? How do objects move? What is the relationship between an object, its maker and its user? These are just some of the questions that run through an innovative showcase of Korean design, which takes place at the Korean Cultural Centre next month. Make Your Movement features the work of nineteen designers and makers, who have drawn upon both traditional and contemporary Korean design elements to create objects that question the very nature of objects. The philosophy at the heart of this exhibition has its roots in Korean tradition, which views objects as shapers of movement. Houses and their furnishings were always designed with the habits and lifestyles of the household in mind, in order to achieve harmony in the space. This ancient consideration for the movements and lifestyles of those who use objects is reinvented in Make Your Movement, particularly in the work of Bomi Park. She has designed her foldable table and chair with the actions of stall-holders in traditional markets in mind, aiming to create functional furniture to help this disappearing community. Another creator, Kyeok Kim, goes one step further. Inspired by new possibilities of movement, her ‘body extensions’, which are made from edible collagen, stretch the limits of the human physical form. Aesthetically speaking, the objects on display in Make Your Movement are wildly variable. Yet the theory of movement links them together; this exhibition treats objects as agents that embody the knowledge of their creators and shape the actions of their users. It is a showcase of Korean material culture: past, present and future. Make Your Movement: Korean Contemporary Objects 1 August - 17 September 2016 Korean Cultural Centre UK