Poster - Longing for Knowledge with Peacock

Poster - Longing for Knowledge with Peacock

With this framed poster - Longing for Knowledge with Peacock by Seungmin Yoon, you make a striking statement in any room. Printed on high-quality, thick, matte paper.

• Paper weight: 189 g/m²
• 0.26 mm (10.3 mil) thick
• Black and white frames made of semi-hard alder wood
• Frame made of solid oak wood
• Front protective film made of Acrylit
• Includes hanging hardware
• 21 × 30 cm posters are size A4
• Raw product components in the USA from Japan and the USA
• Raw product components in the EU from Japan and Latvia

How to attach the hooks to horizontal frames of 61 × 91 cm:
Place each of the fastening hooks 2.5 cm away from the frame corners when hanging the poster horizontally.

Books, Knowledge, and the Peacock

Longing for Knowledge in Contemporary Korean Folk Art

Those encountering Korean folk painting (Minhwa) for the first time are often surprised by its symbolic depth and narrative visual language.
A central motif of this tradition is what is understood here as “longing for knowledge” – inspired by the classical genre of Chaekgeori (책거리).

At first glance, the image appears like a decorative still life of books and carefully arranged objects.
But behind this composition lies a cultural ideal: the desire for education, intellectual refinement, and inner growth.

What does “longing for knowledge” (Chaekgeori) mean?

Chaekgeori developed in the late Joseon Dynasty (18th–19th century).
Characteristic are depictions of stacks of books, shelves, and objects of learning – including brushes, inkstones, ceramics, plants, or incense.

Books represented not only knowledge in the narrow sense but also:

• self-cultivation
• moral maturity
• personal and societal aspiration

Even people without official scholarly status decorated their living spaces with such images – as a quiet but conscious sign of their longing for knowledge.

Extension of tradition: Animals in Chaekgeori

Traditionally, Chaekgeori focused on objects of learning.
This contemporary series expands the genre by integrating symbolically charged animals into the visual world.

The series includes four animals of central importance in East Asian culture:

• Dragon
• Phoenix
• Crane
• Peacock

Each of these animals embodies a human ideal.
This work is dedicated to the peacock.

The peacock in East Asian visual language

In East Asia, the peacock stands for beauty, dignity, and cultural refinement.
Its magnificent plumage symbolizes not mere display, but the visible perfection of inner cultivation.

The peacock combines outer elegance with inner value.
It stands for prosperity in the intellectual sense – for a life shaped by education, aesthetics, and order.

Why a peacock among books?

In this work, the peacock appears among books, writing utensils, and plants.
It does not dominate the scene but harmoniously integrates into it.

The books stand for learning, discipline, and mental preparation.
The peacock embodies the result of this path: cultivated presence, inner dignity, and aesthetic awareness.

Thus, this Chaekgeori does not tell of ambition or external success, but of knowledge as a basis for balance, beauty, and self-respect.

A different way of seeing space and meaning

International viewers often find Chaekgeori visually unusual:

• stacked objects beyond realistic logic
• overlapping perspectives
• flowing transitions between reality and symbol

Not the realistic depiction is in the foreground, but the level of meaning:

Not the question "What does it look like?"
but "What does it stand for?"

The peacock thus becomes the connecting element between knowledge and visible cultivation.

Conclusion

This peacock-centered work understands Longing for Knowledge as a striving for inner maturity and aesthetic balance.

Knowledge here does not appear as a means for social advancement, but as a foundation for beauty, dignity, and inner balance.

A calm, poetic visual world,
In education, finding meaning and form in a harmonious unity.