According to Korea’s foremost poet, aesthetic scholar, critic, and activist Cho Ji Hoon, in the essay “Study of Meot,” (1964) meot (pronounced as mŏt) is a culturally specific Korean aesthetic that is based on ancient theological Three Teachings of nonduality. Nonduality, according to Daoism, transcends the two basic natures of the living world and emotions. ”It is the ‘mutual identity and inter-causality’ of everything.”
The nonduality of the Meot is emphasized time and time again in the exhibit at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, which was organized by Deputy Director of Art Susan Brotman, Jose Carlos Diaz, and guest curator Hyongjeong “HJ” Kim Han of the Denver Art Museum.
At the grand opening of the new exhibit at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the International Examiner had the pleasure of listening to SAM’s new Tateuchi Foundation Curator of Japanese and Korean Art, Aaron Rio, the guest curator HyonJeong “HJ Kim,” and Deputy Director Diaz tell members and the general public a bit about the interconnectedness of the selected artworks to the history of SAM, and its very foundations.
There is a piece, called Use of the Useless, by calligraphy artist Son Manjin, that quotes Zhuangzi (ca 300 BCE): “All people know of the useful, but nobody knows the use of the useless.” This reflects the Daoist nondualist wei-wu wei, or action of inaction.
How does one free themself from the movement, or art, and become one with the experience. How does one forget they are dancing, but are transcendently flowing?
Cho Ji Hoon states in his Treatise on Meot (1996) that “the Art of Meot would proudly have the power of confidence in the midst of sorrow, being characterized by brightness and sophistication amidst simplicity and roughsavor.” Meot is a neologism (a newly formed word fused from two existing words) from maat (taste or appetite) marked by traditional and modern cultures. It is the unrefined beauty (areumdaum) and the matured elegance of aesthetic training (goeum). It is the otiosity (superfluousness) and pragmatic assimilated modernity. It is playfully self-effacing, cheerful, and diverse in scope and focus.
Dr. Rio, when guiding members through the interpretation, reinforced the nonduality of the exhibit. Whilst discussing the modernist Moon Jar (2007), by Youngsook Park, he informed the public of the creative processes and selection of photographs of traditional Moon Jars and modernist whiteware by contemporary artists like Kim Yik-yung (Lidded Vessel, Plate 2000), Bohnchang Koo (White 09 2003), and Yoon Kwang Cho (Heart Sutra 2002).
Rio also discussed “the pursuit of perfection” in the practice of larger than life Moon Jars, created over and over again by Park, of the classical traditions including Early Shilla Kingdom, Goreyeo buncheong and celadon, and Joseon cobalt and whiteware with its contemporary descendant artforms, photography, and prints selected.
These photographs, selected by Dr. Han, showcase “perfections and imperfections of the whiteware unseen by the naked eye.” Both Rio and Han reinforced the nonduality of meot, by highlighting elegant traditional whiteware, modern refined whiteware created by Park and former engineer Kim Yik-yung, juxtaposed by rougher more abstract vessels by Yoon Kwang Cho and ironically, Kim Yik-yung (Vessel, 2007).
Han showcased the playful nature of meot when describing how Park created Moon Jar. “It pushes the limits of whiteware in size and mid-twentieth century aesthetics. Two bowls are fused together in the middle, which creates a waistline. The Moon Jar has a muffin top,” she said. As the audience members all laughed out loud, we were reminded that meot is not meant to be taken too seriously, and also to address any issues at hand.
When guiding SAM members around the exhibit, Dr. Rio gingerly addressed questions ranging from whether a piece was inspired by kintsugi, or its own indigenous Korean-ness. Rio sensitively answered questions about Japanese mountings of culturally-specific Korean inks on paper, repatriation, and complicated matters of historical Japanese, United States, and Korean creative and culturally-political entanglements.
The pair of inks previously mentioned are of wagtails, ca 1630-69 attributed to Cho Sok. The literati inks reflect meot, but are encased in Japanese scrolls, which have been preserved due to the refined nature and textiles selected by the Japanese. This period of time would have been nearly 20 years after the Imjin Wars, when the Japanese revered Korean aesthetics, buncheong ware, literati, and celadon.
Aaron Rio empathetically addressed these issues at hand for the public, and we were left with the collective care in which Rio, and the conservators have for these pieces. They are keeping them in the mountings as they are, to respect the historicity and preservation of these two literati. There are eight known inks on paper of Cho Sok known to exist; the Seattle Art Museum has two of them. Seoul, Korea has two of them in their possession, and the rest have yet to be determined.
On September 18, from 6-7:30p, “A Tale of Two Scrolls: Wagtail on a Rock and Wagtail and Chrysanthemums from the Frank S. Bayley Collection” program with Seattle Art Museum’s Senior Conservator of East Asian Paintings, Tanya Uyeda will be available to SAM members and their guests.
As a diasporic Korean American myself, I deeply appreciated the questions that SAM membership asked of Dr. Rio, and I personally thanked him for tenderly addressing issues of cultural ownership and historical entanglement. Knowing that the Seattle Art Museum plans on future Up Close With Conservators to address the ethical collections care and display of Cho Sok’s literati is comforting.
Diaz acknowledged the interconnectedness of the Frank Bayley Korean art collection housed at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. As we all sat in the Stimson Auditorium of the original Seattle Art Museum, we learned that Frank Bayley III was the grandson of Mrs. Emma Baillargeon Stimson, former acting Director of SAM. Frank Bayley spent extensive amounts of time in Korea, and collected over 60 pieces of Korean art with the intention to advocate for our culture.
Bayley befriended the artists of contemporary pieces he purchased, as well as the guest curator, Dr. Han. HJ Kim Han then informed us that with this gift from Frank Bayley III, Seattle Art Museum now has the largest collection of contemporary Korean ceramics outside of Korea. According to Han, Bayley embodied meot, as an apt pupil of Korean aesthetic sophistication, intertwined with his Pacific Northwest fresh, assimilated modernity. According to the criticisms of Cho Ji Hoon, meot nonduality integrates assimilation of multiculturalism as harmonious to society.
There are many treasures within Meot to see that may be less apparent to those unfamiliar with Korean aesthetics and culture. There is the unique sexegenary cycle, the Four Gracious Plants, or Sangunja, which are the plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo, and there is the palette of the exhibit itself.
Dr. Han discussed how she and the exhibition designer Justin Scoltock worked on a color scheme inspired by one of the hanboks, or Korean garments in the SAM collection. Han’s eyes brightened discussing the cosmetic containers in the exhibit, as objects of beauty, which contained products of beauty to enhance and refine the beauty of the wearer. This transcendence of refinement adorning the unenhanced, as well as the ancient with the new, the art of practice and the art of the uninhibited, useful and useless, all perfectly encapsulate Meot, which is on display at the Seattle Asian Art Museum until March 2, 2025.
