Haejung Lee, 이 해 정Artist
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Categories: Artist’s Book  Illustration  Sculpture
DMZ; Page Zero  I
비무장지대; 넘을 수 없는 선, 넘길 수 없는 책2026DMZ; Page Zero I translates the political and spatial division of the Korean Demilitarized Zone into the physical structure of an artist’s book. Rather than representing the DMZ solely as an image or geographic line, I consider how division might be encountered through the act of handling and reading.

The work transforms the book. A form typically structured through turning pages and moving forward into a space where passage is interrupted. Hanji and layers of natural lacquer create surfaces that register separation, resistance, and latent tension. Through this material obstruction, the geopolitical boundary becomes a bodily encounter with a line that cannot simply be crossed or turned beyond.
Hanji Paper, 옻 (Lacquer)
[Long Stitch Binding]
8” x 18”

Rull Collection I
2026Collaboration with Artist Wonji Lim .
Inspired by her work Shift Center 2026
Located in the Shift Center 2026

Fibrous food-grade casing, Acrylic Panel, Clear Plastic Sleeve 
[Simple Stitch]
7.5” x 22”

Rull Collection II
2026Collaboration with Artist Wonji Lim .
Inspired by her work Shift Center 2026
Acrylic Panel, Inkjet print on matte photo paper 
[Perfect Binding]
10” x 15”

Coffin Book
2026 
My Coffin reimagines the urn as a book-like container holding an accordion structure made from sausage casing and filled with fragrant tea leaves. Just as sausage casing traditionally encloses flesh, here it holds what remains after the body is gone, transforming the material from a vessel of flesh into a vessel of scent, memory, and spirit. 
Fibrous food-grade casing, Hanji, Tea Leaf
[ClamShell Box]
15” x 10” x 8.5”

Unsurveyed Land2026For me, home is not defined by a house, but by the land I have walked on and formed a relationship with. Unsurveyed Land reconstructs the Korean landscape through fragments of hanji, reflecting on how land and memory shape my understanding of home and identity. I used only the curved edges of hanji, joining them closely together until the paper forms a surface that resembles land. In Korea, mountains are visible from almost anywhere, but the Midwest, where I live now, is flat. Here, the landscape I build becomes both a comfort zone and another kind of border.
Hanji
24” x 30”

Exuvial Colony,
허물의 군체2026Living abroad has made my relationship to Korean identity feel increasingly unstable—at times intensified by distance, and at others fragmented or unfamiliar. In Exuvial Colony, I gather and layer skin-like fragments of textured hanji, considering identity not as something fixed or inherited intact, but as something continually shed, accumulated, and re-formed.
Hanji, Muk Ink
95” x 95”

Fleeting Vision, 주마등​2024This work draws inspiration from 'Baridegi' and the jumadeung (zoetrope), creating a slow-moving reflection on life and social identity.

Screen Print on Multimedia, Stones, Charcoal Lump, Acorn
197” x 90” x 63”


Lingering Attachment, 미련
2024 

One of the most intriguing emotions that is inseparable from the human experience is regret. The complex emotion of regret, which swells up uncontrollably, is represented through inflated spherical forms of various sizes. The continuously expanding circular shapes illustrate how regret spreads beyond control, while the hand at the bottom melts away due to the nature of beeswax, gradually losing its shape, symbolizing the fading of regret. This disappearing hand represents past memories and lingering attachments. This process visually conveys how, over time, regret deepens. Through this transformation, the viewer senses a constant longing and yearning. Ultimately, the work encapsulates the coexistence of things fading away and things that continuously extend, portraying the complex emotions of loss and persistence.

Hanji, Twine
33” x 36” x 87”



On the Other Side of Me
2026 Kkokdu are traditional Korean funeral figures that accompany the dead on their journey to the afterlife. Removed from their original context, these figures become different versions of myself, intertwined within a transparent glass jar. Rather than imagining identity as singular or fixed, the work considers the self as something continuously shaped by culture, memory, place, and encounters with others. The glass creates a boundary between inside and outside, asking where the self ends and where others begin.
3d Printed Kkokdu Figure, Glass Jar
4” x 4” x 8”


Home
2025 The people with whom I exchange letters are like "homes" to me, shaping my identity and nurturing me. In this work, I explore the connection between "letters" and "home," not just as a physical space, but as an environment, people, or even writings that have shaped me. 

Mixed Media
40” x 16”
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