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Suki Seokeong Kang’s Mat series takes as its inspiration the hwamunseok – reed mats used in Chunaengmu, a traditional Korean one-person court dance from the Joseon Dynasty that adhered to strict codes of royal etiquette. While Kang's expansive practice is deeply rooted in her research into classical Korean poetry, craft, and dance, her concerns are firmly articulated in the present. Through this lens, Kang explores the movement of bodies and individual agency within society. As a central focus of her artistic practice, the Mat series examines the restricted spaces afforded to individuals and the often constrained platforms available for personal expression.

To produce the hwamunseok mats, the artist collaborates with female craftswomen from Ganghwado, an island in the Yellow Sea that borders North Korea. These artisans are carrying on a centuries-old craft tradition. Made of locally sourced white reeds and woven sedge, Kang has intentionally chosen to use natural materials sourced from this geographic meeting point between North Korea and South Korea. Differing ideologies, traditions, and materials are bound together to create a rich visual score that suggests the possibility of a collective consciousness rooted in individual action.

For this series of variously sized hwamunseok mats, the artist presents them in playful and sometimes unexpected ways: hung on the wall like paintings, suspended in the air, folded in half, and rolled into bundles to exhibit in modified form; others still are framed in steel, or even draped over other works like skin. The work hangs from a frame with proportions derived from the artist's own torso. These hwamunseok mats become both a new layer and a stage to further expand and experiment with the foundations of spatiality and individual subjectivity. Like much of her practice, this body of work centers on the place and role of the individual today.

“The minimal grid I employ in my own mats is infinitely expandable as the individual expands the range of her or his movements. The movements on the mat serve as the blueprint for other visual manifestations, including painting and installation. As the conceptual space expands, the materialised form of the visual objects that constitutes this project is also transformed and diversified. As such, the project is a series of developments driven by the movements of individuals as they constantly pursue a state of further expansion.” - Suki Seokeong Kang, 2018