Mok-su is an anonymous Korean artist who has adopted woodcarving as a meditational practice to silence his restless mind. Trained as a classical guitar player, Mok-su had to put his dream behind him to support his inventor father’s business in Poland. The business was unsuccessful but his love of music led him to teach himself woodworking to create his classical guitar. Through working with wood in solitary practice, Mok-su has found inner peace. On his return to South Korea, the artist preferred to work anonymously, now known only as Mok-su – the Korean name for the carpenter.

Every morning before sunrise, Mok-su starts his practice of hand-carving. Knowing that ‘despair brought by hopes and sadness waits in the tail of happiness’, the artist finds faith in emptying his mind of all directive and distracting thoughts. Smallness, ‘lowness’ and the emptiness of his work manifest his practice, its quiet grace conveying comfort to the human soul.

‘I wish for nothing to happen, neither bad nor good’ – Mok-su, 2022