Korean Funerary Figures

Details

Category: Arts for your town...

Carved by Korean folk artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these tiny, brightly painted sculptures of clowns, tigers and acrobats—known as kkoktu—would seem to belong in a child’s toy box. For centuries, however, Koreans have used them to decorate coffins.

This exhibition gives Americans a chance to glimpse the rich cultural and spiritual meanings of the kkoktu.

Costumed and posed to reflect the realities of rural Korean village life of the past, individual kkoktus are a window on a period that has left few written records. They’re also a window onto a timeless, characteristically Korean attitude towards death. Though the kkoktus’ gaiety seems incongruous with mourning, they express their culture’s deep desire that the dead enter the next world surrounded by joy-and its appreciation of the fleeting nature of all experience.

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Booking Information

Contents	74 objects
Fee	Upon Request
Tour Dates	Fall of 2009 through 2010
Running Feet	Minimum 120 running feet
Loan period	4 to 16 weeks
Crates	40 "  x 60 "  x 6           -1 box 10 "  x 47 "  x 8 "         - 5  boxes 26  "  x 3 2  "  x 8 "      - 9  boxes 22 "  x 29 "  x 3 "         -12  boxes 20 "  x 63 "  x 6 "         - 1  box 20 "  x 63 "  x 6.5 "      - 1  box 20 "  x 68 "  x 7 "         -1  box 24 "  x 51 "  x 30 "       -1  box 10.5 "  x 61 "  x 7 "      -1  box
Weight	TBA
Category	Korean Art / History & Folk Culture
Security	Moderate / High
Shipping	The Korea Society provides shipping to and from the exhibitor’s venue.
Contact	Jinyoung Kim Senior Program Officer for the Arts 212-759-7525 ext 316 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Korean Funerary Figures:
Companions for the Journey to the Other World

Carved by Korean folk artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these tiny, brightly painted sculptures of clowns, tigers and acrobats—known as kkoktu—would seem to belong in a child’s toy box. For centuries, however, Koreans have used them to decorate coffins.

This exhibition gives Americans a chance to glimpse the rich cultural and spiritual meanings of the kkoktu.

Costumed and posed to reflect the realities of rural Korean village life of the past, individual kkoktus are a window on a period that has left few written records. They’re also a window onto a timeless, characteristically Korean attitude towards death. Though the kkoktus’ gaiety seems incongruous with mourning, they express their culture’s deep desire that the dead enter the next world surrounded by joy-and its appreciation of the fleeting nature of all experience.

• New York Times Review, "Korea’s Extraordinary Send-Offs for Ordinary People", August 17, 2007 link
• Japan Times Review, "Little Friends for the Other World", October 11, 2007 link

Open to the Public

Location
The Korea Society, 950 Third Avenue, Eighth Floor, New York City
(Building entrance on SW corner of Third Avenue and 57th Street)

Korean Funerary Figures: Companions for the Journey to the Other World is available to travel to your school, university, library or museum. Please click for booking information.

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Booking Information

Contents	74 objects
Fee	Upon Request
Tour Dates	Fall of 2009 through 2010
Running Feet	Minimum 120 running feet
Loan period	4 to 16 weeks
Crates	40 "  x 60 "  x 6           -1 box 10 "  x 47 "  x 8 "         - 5  boxes 26  "  x 3 2  "  x 8 "      - 9  boxes 22 "  x 29 "  x 3 "         -12  boxes 20 "  x 63 "  x 6 "         - 1  box 20 "  x 63 "  x 6.5 "      - 1  box 20 "  x 68 "  x 7 "         -1  box 24 "  x 51 "  x 30 "       -1  box 10.5 "  x 61 "  x 7 "      -1  box
Weight	TBA
Category	Korean Art / History & Folk Culture
Security	Moderate / High
Shipping	The Korea Society provides shipping to and from the exhibitor’s venue.
Contact	Jinyoung Kim Senior Program Officer for the Arts 212-759-7525 ext 316 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Scheduled and Toured Venues

Scheduled Venues
Spurlock Museum, Univeristy of Illinois - Urbana Champaign, Urbana Champaign, IL, March 2 - July 11, 2010 web

Fowler Musuem, University of California - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, August 1 - November 30, 2010 web
Brunei Gallery, University of London, UK, 2011 [TBA] web

Toured Venues
The Korea Society Gallery, New York, NY, July 26, 2007 - November 20, 2007
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT  January 30 - March 7, 2008
Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC, January 20 - May 16, 2009 web
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Uniiversity of Oregon, Eugene, OR, July 14 - October 4, 2009 web