Eunseok Han

Eunseok Han
Oregon

Eunseok Han completed an MFA in metal craft at the Dongduck women's university in Seoul and studied drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the USA. Eunseok is interested in the natural environment and has recently made small efforts to protect the environment by making jewelry out of recycled cans.

"My work began with our daily life full of disposable items. The disposables we meet
every day are considered as non-precious materials and are used only once then
discarded. Generally, diamonds, gold, and silver are great materials of jewelry. On
the other hand, disposable cans and plastics have been considered inadequate
materials for art and jewelry. However, I thought we could make beautiful
contemporary art and jewelry with non-precious materials, even with the discarded
materials. This is why I started working with the recycled cans, the disposable
materials. In addition, disposable products are considered one of the main cause of
environmental pollution. Even though we have a good recycling system in place, the
environment is gradually polluted, the earth is warming, and the water temperature
rises. As a result, many living things are threatened their lives. Corals, for example,
bleach due to the pollution, and lose their beautiful colors. I used discarded
aluminum cans to express the beautiful colors of coral that are gradually
disappearing due to the pollution. I hope that both disposable cans and the corals
could stay alive with us for a long time. As we pass the Covid-19 era, we realize
again the importance of nature and the need for efforts to sustain it. As an artist, I’ll
continue to create a various art work out of the recycled aluminum cans in a small
effort to do my part."