Kim Hyun Jung x Lotte Academy

A Naesoong girl knocking back a shot of soju in front of a sizzling pork-belly grill moved over onto a tote bag.

In 2016, I made a canvas eco tote bag in collaboration with Lotte Academy, the Lotte Group’s human resources development institute. Printed in the center of the bag is a Naesoong girl tilting back a glass of soju with pork belly grilling on a round oil-drum table, so that the familiar scene of an after-work company dinner could be slung right over your shoulder.

That a painting of the most Korean of dinner tables would find its place in a space devoted to nurturing talent felt to me like a story about how work and everyday life are, in the end, one and the same.