Constructed Tradition

This work collects the surface of “tradition” reproduced by AI generative models. The plates reminiscent of Goryeo-period ceramics, along with the Korean explanatory texts attached to them, were all generated entirely by artificial intelligence.

These images meticulously imitate the visual form and language of tradition, yet they contain no actual historical context within them. The patterns repeat without lineage, and the sentences preserve only their form while failing to produce meaning. The problem is that this emptiness is not easily recognized. Rather than questioning it, we tend to accept it as “tradition” based on its familiar appearance and language. As our understanding of tradition becomes increasingly vague, surfaces more easily replace truth.

This work reveals a state of data in which meaning has been removed and only form continues to proliferate. At the same time, it exposes the contemporary visual environment in which generated images and texts are accepted without critical reflection. In the end, we stop asking what these images actually mean or where they originated from.

What this work ultimately reveals is not a “fake tradition,” but our own inability to distinguish it.

50 × 50 cm (Generative AI & Adobe Photoshop)
May 2026
Upcoming Exhibition, Korean Society of Basic Design & Art Spring International Invitation Exhibition