In December 2024, I dreamed of a monstrous cloud, like a creature from Hellbound, engulfing the city of Seoul. Fleeing from this terrifying cloud, I descended to the lowest ground and encountered beings who had lost their way. They seemed abandoned, and I felt a strong urge to hold them close. Upon waking, the news of a martial law declaration fused with the dream’s imagery, leaving me with the sensation that the boundary between worlds had been torn thin.
In that moment, I thought of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Just as Alice wandered in confusion between dream and reality, I too found myself in a state where something I believed could only belong to history books—martial law, unthinkable in the 21st century—was suddenly unfolding in the reality I inhabited. At that time, South Korea was gripped by a profound uncertainty: What is truly the law, and what must we obey and follow? It was like the world of the Queen of Hearts, where rules exist but can be overturned at any whim.
That day, I returned home from an outing to find my mother, restless and unsettled, breathing with visible fear at the news. She was a living witness to the Yushin era, but I could only mimic the recollection of those harsh years through the printed words of history books. I reassured her—feigning calm—that this martial law would be nothing more than a passing midnight incident, then tried to sleep. That act of trying to fall asleep—was it, I wonder, like Alice stepping into Wonderland, or was it a quiet effort to escape from it?
In this project, I especially draw on playful, storybook-like colours and patterns—the very colours of the reality I live in. Even in the wake of martial law, Korean society remains culturally dynamic, shaped by the many who strive to heal its wounds swiftly and creatively. Soft Logic translates the collapse of boundaries, the ambiguity of law and order, and the generational gap in memory into the language of repeated and layered threads. The card motif serves as a sign of order and regulation, while the rhythm of stitching and the trembling of light reveal the seepage of freedom and unpredictability within it.
