The City Lights Stacked in Corrugated Pipes... Shin Yewon's "Wrinkle, Wrinkle, Wrinkle"

KCDF Hosts Emerging Artist's Solo Exhibition at Window Gallery Until August 2
Exploring the Boundaries of Craft, Function, and Decoration with Industrial Materials

The Korea Craft & Design Foundation will hold the solo exhibition "Wrinkle, Wrinkle, Wrinkle" by emerging artist Shin Yewon, who was selected for the emerging category of the 2026 KCDF Craft & Design Competition Exhibition, from July 8 to August 2 at the KCDF Window Gallery.

The Korea Craft & Design Foundation will hold an exhibition titled "Wrinkle, Wrinkle, Wrinkle" by emerging artist Shin Yewon, selected in the emerging category of the 2026 KCDF Craft & Design Competition, from the 8th to August 2nd at the KCDF Window Gallery. The photo shows the exhibition view of the "Pagoda Lamp" series, created by layering transparent wrinkle tubes. Photo by The Korea Craft & Design Foundation

This exhibition showcases lighting works that transform industrial materials such as PVC corrugated pipes, cable ties, and polycaprolactone (PCL) into a craft-based language. It presents sculptural experiments that offer a new perspective on the boundaries between function and decoration, and between craft and industry.

The exhibition title is inspired by the repeated wrinkles of the main material, the corrugated pipe. Through the "Pagoda Lamp" series, in which transparent corrugated pipes are layered and connected, Shin has created clusters of lights stacked like pagodas. The lights, varying in height and shape, evoke a city skyline when viewed through the glass windows of the Window Gallery.

Shin studied industrial design and completed graduate school in furniture design before expanding her practice into the field of craft. In this exhibition, she focuses on "form after function." The wrinkles of PVC pipes, originally designed to bend, become patterns, and cable ties, intended for binding objects, are transformed into decorative elements. The use of PCL, which can be hand-shaped with heat, adds traces of manual work to the industrial materials.

The representative work, the "Pagoda Lamp" series, features repeated wrinkle patterns layered in a way that creates an architectural sense of structure. The internal light seeps through the gaps in the pipes, revealing the form and texture of the material. The Korea Craft & Design Foundation explained that the exhibition is arranged to take advantage of the open structure of the Window Gallery, allowing passersby outside to naturally encounter the works.

Kim Kyungbae, President of the Korea Craft & Design Foundation, stated, "This exhibition presents Shin Yewon's original experiments in reinterpreting everyday industrial materials from a craft perspective," adding, "We will continue to support emerging artists who are exploring new sculptural languages so that they can grow on a broader stage."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.