NORI totem

2023

Nori
90 × 90 × 280 cm each (dimensions variable) 
artificial Hair, color rope, MDF, metal mesh

"Where Is My Friend's Home" at Hyundai Motorstudio, 2023 ⓒ Hyundai Motor Company

NORI reinterprets the traditional Korean ornament Norigae through the lens of suppressed desire and imagined freedom. The project originates from Kim’s childhood experiences growing up within South Korea’s conservative gender norms, where personal expression and bodily autonomy were often constrained.

By incorporating gestures such as combing, braiding, and knotting hair into the making process, the Norigae is transformed into hybrid sculptural forms that function as totems, ropes, and mobiles. These gestures operate both as acts of care and as ritualized processes through which the artist negotiates identity and self-expression.

NORI constructs a speculative space in which private memory, ornamentation, and bodily fantasy intersect. The work does not aim to reproduce tradition but to reconfigure it as a living structure that carries personal mythology, emotional labor, and alternative forms of belonging.