[K-ART FOCUS] For Choi Sung-im, bread ties become golden blanket

At Sunhyewon, the secluded traditional Korean house-turned-art space in Seoul’s Samcheong-dong, a glittering carpet unfurls across the lobby. Looking closer, however, Choi Sung-im’s “Golden Blanket” (2026) reveals itself to be handwoven from thousands of the gold wire ties used to seal bags of sliced bread. The 6.2-by-4.8-meter installation, which took more than a month to make by hand, anchors PODO Museum’s “A Note From Trembling Things.” “For me, a blanket is not simply a household item,” Choi said during a press preview during Frieze Seoul Art Week. "When I open my eyes in the morning, it is the first landscape that I see and it touches my body — a world larger than my body.” She wanted to place it at a threshold, she said, such as wooden floor of "hanok" traditional Korean house, where interior and exterior meet. The exhibition explores the ways people inhabit the world together, featuring works by Choi, Lebanese-British artist Mona Hatoum and Korean artist Kim Yun-soo. “Every being changes, and perhaps it is because we change that we are vulnerable,” Choi s