JUMONG

Before he was a king, he was a boy no one trusted. Jumong hatched from an egg that his mother, Lady Yuhwa, had protected from dogs, pigs and a jealous king. By the age of seven he was making his own bows, and his arrows never missed. In the language of Buyeo, that is what his name came to mean: the good archer.

The king’s sons hated him for it. At the royal hunt they gave him the thinnest horse and the fewest arrows, and he still came home with more game than all of them. So they decided he had to die. He fled at night with three friends until a river with no bridge stopped them. With the riders closing in, he called on his grandfather, the river god, and fish and turtles rose to carry him across. At twenty-one he founded a kingdom. The wire figure holds him at full draw: no bulk, nothing hidden, every line pointed one way. Gold, for the boy they underestimated, who never missed.

The legend of Jumong

• His story is told in the Samguk sagi, Korea’s oldest surviving history (1145), and the Gwanggaeto Stele honours him as Chumo, a son of Heaven.
• In the language of Buyeo, the name Jumong meant “a good archer.” He was later honoured as King Dongmyeong.
• Legend says he made his own bow and arrows by age seven and had become a master archer.
• At the royal hunt he was given a weak horse and fewer arrows, yet brought back more game than the princes who wanted him dead.
• One telling has him split a jade ring at a hundred paces after a rival king failed to hit his painted target.
• He founded Goguryeo in 37 BC; the kingdom lasted until 668 AD. The 2006 Korean drama Jumong later carried his legend far beyond Korea.

Art style: Figurative wire sculpture
Medium: Gold-toned wire on textured base
Dimensions: 72 × 95 × 35 cm (H × W × D)
Themes: Focus, destiny, mastery
Collection: Form, Memory & Movement
Catalogue number: 06

Unique original. Dimensions are estimates and will be confirmed on physical measurement.