Exhibition Information

			 The world of the Jeju haenyeo, women who have lived with and from the sea, is disappearing. As climate change reshapes their environment and communal ties weaken, their skills and ethics are increasingly consumed as cultural symbols. Yet Jeju is where this culture began: generations of women have learned the sea’s rhythm, diving into its depths and passing down knowledge through practice and memory.

 In the summer of 2025, five artists journeyed to Jeju to live and work alongside the haenyeo. They shared meals, listened to stories by the bulteok, and observed the tools, rituals, and gestures that shape this way of life. Their two weeks of immersion became the foundation of this exhibition. Each artist dives below the surface. Celine Park explores the hierarchies and silences within the collective; Yihwa Kim envisions the “nomad haenyeo” adapting to ecological collapse; Suhyeok Moon critiques the commodification of tradition; Jeemin Sohn reframes femininity and labor; and Mijin Choi traces how oral knowledge flows through relationships.

 Developed under the philosophy of Speculative Design Seoul (SDS)—founded by Celine Park in 2020—the project reflects on how design and art can reimagine the futures we prefer. 《Jeju Haenyeo: Disappearing Worlds》opens in Seoul and continues in Jeju in November 2025, questioning not how the haenyeo are remembered, but how their bodies, tools, and ethics still endure—and who continues to speak for this legacy?