Hannami Kim, the Originator of Jangpanhwa 長板火

Definition of JANGPANHWA (長板火)

by Hannami Kim

I first defined Jangpanhwa (長板畫) as a term referring to any artwork made with jangpan hanji, the thick, oiled Korean paper once used to cover floors. For me, 畫(hwa), which traditionally means “painting,” extends beyond depiction. It signifies the act of making, an articulation of energy into matter, whether flat, sculptural, or spatial.

Over time, my practice evolved into what I now call Jangpanhwa (長板火), retaining the same Romanized form but replacing 畫(“painting”) with 火 (“fire”). This subtle linguistic shift mirrors a material and spiritual transformation in my work. Fire and heat have become central agents: forces that mark, scar, and reveal the layered memory within the hanji.

The use of fire and heat is not merely a formal device but a return to cultural memory. The warmth of ondol, Korea’s traditional floor-heating system, is embedded in my body memory, a heat that once rose quietly through the floor beneath daily life. In Jangpanhwa, that warmth becomes visible, turning the surface of the floor into a field of meditation and transfiguration.

While deeply personal, my practice extends the lineage of Dansaekhwa, sharing its focus on materiality, repetition, and the meditative process of making. Yet, Jangpanhwa departs from it by introducing the element of fire, transforming the monochrome’s stillness into a dialogue between endurance and impermanence, silence and intensity.

Through Jangpanhwa, I seek a language of heat - 

where the unseen energy of life inscribes itself upon matter.

© 2024 Hannami Kim

The Discourse of Jangpanhwa

The Vertical Uprising: From Ground to Upright

In the history of abstraction, the wall has often been a site of contemplation, while the floor has remained a surface of use. Jangpanhwa destabilizes this spatial hierarchy by repositioning the traditionally horizontal jangpan , a Korean floor covering engineered to absorb weight, warmth, and time, onto the vertical plane. What was ground becomes upright, and domestic utility becomes conceptual investigation.

The Aesthetics of Friction: No Friction, No Record

While the contemporary world moves toward a 'frictionless' digital existence, Jangpanhwa embraces Absolute Friction. The surface is incised, folded, scorched, and otherwise intervened upon. These marks do not illustrate; they register force and the passage of time as a physical residue. In this practice, friction is the only medium of truth; without the resistance of the material, there is no record of existence.

Primitive Blockchain: The Incorruptible Trace

Each mark on the jangpan acts as a Primitive Blockchain. Unlike digital algorithms, these scorched 'Hwa-heun' (fire marks) and incisions are irreversible and unique. They fossilize the ritualized labor and the physical heat of the artist's intervention, creating an analog ledger of time that cannot be forged or deleted.

The Social Skin: From Private Memory to Public Presence

Beyond its physical properties, Jangpan functions as a Domestic Skin, a surface that has absorbed the intimate history of daily life: the warmth of bodies, the weight of furniture, and the slow accumulation of living. When this material is uprooted from the floor and placed upon the gallery wall, a profound shift occurs. The most private surface becomes the most public one. The Domestic Skin transforms into a Social Skin, exposing the hidden endurance and quiet resistance of the everyday. Jangpanhwa is not merely a story about Korean floors; it is a universal investigation into how surfaces protect, conceal, and persist. 

Global Dialogue: The Politics of Space

By relocating jangpan to a gallery wall, the work situates a local Korean material within a global discourse on space, materiality, and temporality, engaging with themes explored in post-minimalism and contemporary abstract practice. The work is both materially and conceptually finite, inviting a reconsideration of the structures that underlie perception, use, and meaning. The floor stands upright  and in doing so, it asserts its presence not as a surface to be trodden upon, but as a monumental testament to resistance and survival.

© 2025 Hannami Kim