On view at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art from September 22, 2026, to March 7, 2027, “Equinox” explores how Chang Eungbok brings the beauty of Korean traditional culture and nature into contemporary living environments. Surveying some four decades of her practice, this special exhibition celebrating a donation of contemporary craft presents approximately 400 works, ranging from pattern designs and everyday objects to furniture, lighting, and spatial installations.
 
Chang is a designer whose textile-based practice connects craft with interiors. In 1986, she founded MONO, a shop encompassing textiles, furnishings, and interior design, where she introduced fabrics informed by Korean culture and aesthetics. Collaborations with craftspeople across disciplines have since expanded the uses of her patterns. In her work, pattern does more than adorn a surface. It connects materials and techniques, shapes the atmosphere of furniture and interiors, and brings a sense of nature and the seasons into everyday life.
 
The title “Equinox” refers to the moments in spring and autumn when day and night are nearly equal in length. The exhibition’s Korean subtitle, “Autumnal Equinox_Vernal Equinox,” makes this seasonal connection explicit. Opening around the autumnal equinox and closing ahead of the following spring’s, the exhibition reflects Chang’s interest in natural cycles and balance. Its three sections—“House of Patterns,” “House within a House,” and “Circling the Pagoda”—trace how a single motif can develop into an object and, in turn, a spatial environment.

The first section, “House of Patterns,” introduces more than 100 patterns designed by Chang. Their sources include traditional Korean painting, everyday objects, and the natural world. Familiar forms—flowers, fish, fans, and spoons—become new patterns through repetition and variation. Color, line, and the rhythm of these forms offer an immediate way into the work, even for visitors unfamiliar with Korean traditional culture.
 
A key work, Patchwork Wall, brings together patterns rendered in silk, hanji, glass, and other materials within 72 wooden frames. Hanji, traditional Korean paper, sits alongside fabric and glass, creating contrasts in surface and texture. The frames contain images of peonies, traditional flower-adorned shoes, fish, and sipjangsaeng, the ten symbols of longevity. This traditional group of motifs includes the sun, mountains, pine trees, and cranes. Gathered within a single wall, these symbols and everyday objects reveal how imagery embedded in Korean life can become part of contemporary design.

Patchwork Wall rewards both close attention to individual motifs and a broader view of the composition. Small frames containing different colors and materials come together to form a larger whole, reflecting Chang’s approach to bringing distinct craft disciplines into dialogue.
 
 
In the second section, “House within a House,” patterns extend into everyday objects, furniture, and interiors. Chang has imagined small yet complete dwellings through the structures of furniture and chaekgado, a genre of traditional Korean painting depicting books and assorted objects arranged on shelves. Her connection between furniture that holds objects and homes that accommodate people creates another living environment within the gallery.
 
House–House is a modular installation in which a wooden framework can be combined with patterned hanji and textiles, furniture, and handcrafted household objects. The frame, its surfaces, and the objects placed within it define the space together. Here, visitors can see how Chang’s patterns acquire scale, density, and atmosphere within a living environment.
 
This section also presents the ‘Jijang’ series, which reinterprets traditional objects, alongside Twenty-Four Solar Terms Hwamunseok and Ginkgo Tree. A hwamunseok is a traditional floor mat woven from plant fibers to create decorative patterns, while the twenty-four solar terms divide the year into intervals that mark seasonal change. The work’s title brings together an everyday furnishing and a way of observing nature’s rhythms. Through pattern and craft, the passage of the seasons finds a place within the home.

The final section, “Circling the Pagoda,” brings patterns, crafted objects, moving images, and sound together in an immersive environment. Its Korean title, “tapdori”, refers to the practice of walking around a pagoda. The indigo-blue works Longing for Mount Geumgang and Sea encircle the space, while the Nanghwa Paper Umbrella Chandelier, based on the structure of traditional paper umbrellas, occupies its center. Beneath constellation patterns, visitors move through a landscape that unfolds from mountains to sea and sky.
 
Sea was created in collaboration with Jeong Gwan-chae, a master dyer recognized under Korea’s National Intangible Heritage system. The work uses “jjok” dyeing, a traditional method of coloring cloth blue with dye derived from the indigo plant. As this blue expands into a surrounding landscape, color itself becomes central to the experience of the exhibition.

The Nanghwa Paper Umbrella Chandelier was made with Yoon Kyu-sang, a master paper umbrella maker recognized under Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province’s Intangible Heritage system. Known as jiusan, these traditional umbrellas consist of a frame covered with paper; a jiusanjang is a craftsperson who preserves and practices the techniques used to make them. In this work, the open umbrella becomes a lighting structure. Umbrellas of different sizes rise in tiers to form the centerpiece of the space, their paper surfaces and supporting ribs giving the chandelier its shape and character. The same section also presents Fan Table, developed with the furniture design studio Standard A.
 
Collaboration is another thread running throughout the exhibition. Chang has connected her patterns with skills in dyeing, weaving, woodworking, and paper umbrella making. The process involves retaining the distinctive qualities of each material and technique while allowing them to work together within a shared living environment. As visitors move through the exhibition, they encounter not only the patterns but also the skills and sensibilities of the people who transform them into objects and give them a place in space.
 
《Equinox》 offers an encounter with Korean craft through the relationships between color, material, object, and space. Visitors need not recognize every traditional motif or understand its symbolism to appreciate the work. The rhythm of repeating patterns, the textures of paper, fabric, and wood, and the interplay of indigo and light offer their own ways in. Through these experiences, the exhibition invites visitors to consider how Korean traditions can continue to take shape in contemporary homes and everyday life.

The exhibition is accompanied by talks and workshops. On October 17, Chang will discuss her practice and the relationship between craft and design. Pattern-design workshops for design students and working professionals will take place on November 20 and December 18. An indigo-dyeing class at Jeong Gwan-chae’s workshop in Naju and a paper umbrella class at Yoon Kyu-sang’s workshop in Jeonju are also planned. Registration details and participation requirements are available on the museum’s website.

About Chang Eungbok
 
Chang Eungbok (b. 1961) is a designer who develops motifs drawn from Korean traditional culture and nature into textiles, furniture, and spatial environments. She graduated from Hongik University’s Department of Textile Art and founded MONO, the predecessor of Monocollection, in 1986.
 
Through collaborations with master craftspeople across disciplines, she has brought Korean aesthetics into contemporary living environments. Her work is held in collections including the Seoul Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

About the Seoul Museum of Craft Art
 
The Seoul Museum of Craft Art is a municipal museum exploring the materials, techniques, and everyday cultures of Korean craft, from traditional practices to contemporary work. Located in Anguk-dong in Seoul’s Jongno district, it presents exhibitions and educational programs that examine the many ways craft connects art with daily life.
 
 
 
Exhibition Information
 
Dates: September 22, 2026–March 7, 2027
Venue: Special Exhibition Gallery, 3F, Exhibition Building 1, Seoul Museum of Craft Art
Address: 4 Yulgok-ro 3-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Source: Exhibition press materials provided by the Seoul Museum of Craft Art
Exhibition website: Equinox — Seoul Museum of Craft Art