Enamel, cloth, grass, bones: Exploring the body as landscape
No surprise that Jin A. Seo, associate professor of art and design at Missouri State University, counts herself among those inspired.
However, Seo, an art jeweler, approaches landscapes differently.
Her work breaks the confines of traditional jewelry-making. Pushing past an outfit accessory, her jewelry serves as a sculptural exploration of the body. Seo’s work asks the viewer to consider their own body as a landscape.
“Everybody has some sort of understanding of ‘body.’ Everybody has one. They’re all similar, all different.”
“There are so many facets. Sometimes it seems as if you do not even think about it because you are in it,” Seo said.
Through her work, Seo’s thinks about the body as a landscape with its own unique topography. She is influenced by bone structures like ball and socket joints and mathematical forms. To her, these elements of the body are similar to the features of the landscapes that surround us.
In her exploration of the human body, Seo delves into the interplay of what is real and what is artificial in our environments.
Bridging cultural experiences
In 2022, her sculptural jewelry series “Mow the Lawn” went to South Korea for an international exhibit. The moment was pivotal in Seo’s artistic career. It was her first time showing her work professionally in her home country.
Post-pandemic, Seo and some of her fellow jewelers decided the world needed some cheering up. So, they exhibited a show focusing on the power of color. Their resulting show “Colorful Minds” debuted at South Korea’s prestigious Baum Gallery. Select pieces have since traveled on to exhibit at the Baltimore Jewelry Center. 
Advancing age-old techniques
All the pieces in the “Colorful Minds” exhibit used enameling. Enamel uses powdered glass glazed over metal and kiln fired. It produces a rich, colorful sheen on the metal below.
Sunyoung Cheong, assistant professor of metalsmithing/jewelry at University of Kansas, counts Seo among a few key artists who are extending the limits in enamel.
“These artists explore an enameling technique by introducing contemporary interpretations of the historical medium, which has been increasingly overlooked by the younger generation,” said Cheong, who curated the “Colorful Minds” exhibition.
“They express themselves in visual language, reflecting their personal narratives using traditional enameling techniques as well as new technology to experiment and challenge the traditional craft.”
Enameling three-dimensional forms takes patience. Powder can roll off curved surfaces. Seo works in tiny steps, applying and then kiln firing each piece repeatedly. This technique allows her to enamel complicated structures, like shapes inspired by bones, organs and other parts of the body.
Her combination of traditional enameling techniques with out of the ordinary fiber materials elevates her process to push the boundaries of convention.
Teaching and learning from others
Seo’s expertise in art jewelry earned her invitations to teach workshops and participate in artist residencies at some of the nation’s finest craft schools including Haystack Mountain School of Craft and Penland School of Craft.
The schools are both set in their own expansive landscapes. Haystack sits on the face of a mountain in coastal Maine. Penland is nestled into North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. In both locations, Seo collaborates with other metalsmiths, to learn even more techniques for exploring the body as landscape. 
Mow The Lawn Series
Through this series, Seo reflects on societal obsessions with beauty, cleanliness and Korean beauty ideals. She combines it with standards of lawn beauty in America. As a result, she weaves a narrative of historical context and firsthand experiences. It all goes back to landscapes — the personal topography of our bodies and the physical landscapes where we live.
“Mow the Lawn” presents a whimsical yet critical take on the culture of lawn care. Seo encountered the Western concept of “lawn care” when she relocated from Korea to the American Midwest for graduate school. Well-manicured lawns emerged in the American landscape in post-war suburbia. Even though the lawns are real, the landscape is artificial and man-made.
Bridging back to her own culture, she incorporates another artificial element in the form of “shower cloth.”
Korean shower cloth has a distinct bright grass-green color. It is made of viscose, an artificial fiber.
Despite the moniker of “Italy towel,” the shower cloth originated in Korea.
The bright green color is instantly recognizable. It also happens to match the color of AstroTurf, an artificial grass replacement.
“There’s so many shades of green in nature. And when you look at green pain, it’s so fake feeling,” said Seo.
Seo’s work references bone structures such as ball and socket joints and the voids in hip bones. It is another way she incorporates the idea of the body as landscape into her work.
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