CID

In Joseon-period Korea (1392–1897 CE), pojagi — small squares of fabric assembled from irregular cloth remnants and used to wrap gifts, food, or personal possessions — occupied an ambiguous position in the hierarchy of artistic production. Art historian Sunny Yang has argued that while pojagi were made almost exclusively by women and classified as craft rather than fine art, the asymmetrical patchwork compositions they often featured demonstrate a command of color proportion and spatial rhythm that Yang considers comparable to formally trained painting traditions. The objects' dual character — simultaneously functional wrapping cloths and sophisticated visual compositions — has made them difficult to situate within conventional art-historical taxonomies.