Celadon Sanjo Gayageum Sculpture: Inlaid Wedding Procession Motif
This work is chosen by those who value tradition most when its structure, story and material are allowed to remain visibly connected. "Across a field of celadon, a wedding procession moves quietly beneath the strings, as though memory itself had been given rhythm." Created by Icheon ceramic master Kwon O-hak, this celadon sculpture takes the form of a sanjo gayageum , one of Korea’s most recognisable traditional string instruments, and transforms it into a ceramic narrative object. Measuring approximately 56 cm across, it is not intended for performance. Instead, the artist has recreated the physical language of the gayageum in clay, preserving its elongated profile, strings and characteristic components while allowing the broad ceramic body to become a surface for storytelling. The central subject is a traditional Korean wedding procession. Read from left to right, the scene follows the movement surrounding the groom’s journey to the bride’s home and the subsequent passage towards the groom’s household after the bride has joined the procession. Rather than reducing the event to a single ceremonial emblem, the composition unfolds through multiple figures. Attendants carry belonging
