part 4 . Gopuri

< Gopuri >

Gopuri is a ritual from Korean shamanistic tradition — specifically the ssitgim-gut ceremony of the Hwasun region in South Jeolla Province. It is a rite performed to release the han 

and unresolved grief of the deceased, so that their spirit may be sent peacefully to the afterlife.

White cloth or hemp fabric is tied into multiple knots, and a shaman performs the ceremony by untying them one by one. The word go means knot — and by extension, pain or resentment — so gopuri carries the meaning of loosening what has become bound: releasing the grief 

that has hardened within.

The ritual expresses the wish that the dead may free themselves from the sorrows of their living days and pass into the afterlife as liberated beings. It also holds a deeper symbolic dimension: the soul, rendered impure through death, is purified and elevated 

to the status of an ancestral spirit.

Today, gopuri is transmitted only within the shamanistic traditions of the Jeolla provinces.

< Gopuri - Installation Overview >

This installation is inspired by the gopuri ritual of the ssitgim gut ceremony, 

reinterpreting through visual art the act of releasing the anguished grief bound within 

a being.

Just as the traditional rite dissolves the resentment of the dead by untying knots in white cotton cloth, this work allows water given to sustain the living plants to wash away the white watercolor paint layered over a Pensive Bodhisattva figure(Pensive Bodhisattva figure), carrying karma away as it flows.

The Bagua (Eight Trigrams : It is an ancient East Asian divination symbol representing
the fundamental forces of the universe and the patterns of inescapable destiny.) supporting the base of the figure visualizes fate as something that cannot be defied. 

Upon this framework of inescapable destiny, the existential question‘ 

why must I live this way?’is transposed into a personified ritual of washing away the han, 

the accumulated suffering of a life.

Through a specific arrangement of lighting, 

the shadows of the plants and the contemplative figure cast upon the wall reveal that 

all suffering and joy even the fate we are given are ultimately nothing more than illusion.

< Gopuri — Glossary of Terms >

· Samjang : Three Baskets

The foundational canon of Buddhist scripture, comprising the Buddha's teachings,

 monastic codes, and philosophical treatises.

· Eight Rooms : Bagua

An ancient East Asian divination symbol in which the eight trigrams express 

the principles of all things through the interplay of yin and yang.

· Bari Degi : Hermes 

In Korean shamanism, an abandoned child who becomes a deity a guide 

who leads souls safely into the afterlife.

· Sparse Stitching : Basting the Soul

The act of placing stitches at wide intervals. A newly invented script, created by the artist.

· Ssitgim : Ritual Cleansing

The ritual washing away of the han — the grief and resentment — of a departed soul.

· Gopuri : Releasing the Bound Grief

The untying of bound knots, one by one, to soothe and release a soul.

· Gildakeum : Clearing the Path

The act of preparing and smoothing the path so that a soul may pass peacefully into heaven.