Wrapping cloth (bojagi) with golden horse motif

These three bojagi [2017.15, 2017.14, 2017.16] were made for the wedding trousseau of a bride, the daughter of a textile studio owner in Seoul. Making bojagi to wrap precious wedding presents has been a common tradition since the Joseon dynasty. These three works demonstrate how a bojagi was created originally, made from remnants of fabric, such as clothing and bedding, presumably from the family’s store.

The bojagi on the left was made with borders of different fabrics. The Classical Chinese characters mean “fortune” and “longevity.” It is interesting to discover stamps saying, “silk made in Japan,” which reflect the exchanges of fabric during the Japanese colonization in Korea. On the bojagi on the right the nine-character inscriptions on blue fabric indicate that the were border strips from special silk made in Yeongheung, a region located in today’s North Korea, where special silk for the royal family was produced during the Joseon dynasty.

These bojagis also inspired artist Steph Rue in creating Daughter, a quilt made of paper, on view behind.