Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Jeju National Museum

INTRODUCTION
We are reconnecting people to people. Today, we are looking back on old stone figures in an effort to contemplate the essence of life and seek solace. The Jeju National Museum is holding an exhibition that focuses on stone sculptures of child attendants from Jeju-do Island and stone arhats from Yeongwol, Gangwon Province. They are stone child attendants from Jeju, which stand at the feet of the deceased and console both the departed and the survivors. The stone arhats from the Changnyeongsa Temple Site in Yeongwol depict enlightened saints yet have friendly faces much like our own.
A selection of stone child attendants, which are considered spirit guardians on Jeju, welcome these stone arhats. It is hoped that you can connect with the wordless consolation offered by these old stone figures in an exhibition hall designed to reflect an oreum (parasitic volcanic cone).

To Old Stone Figures
There is a stone.
It has been in place through the eons despite the vagaries of weather.
There is a stone figure.
It stands serenely with a face that is neither pretty nor fierce.
A person speaks to the stone figure.
The figure replies with silence.
The ancient stone figure and the person of today chat silently through their minds.
These stone figures from Jeju and Yeongwol have come together at last after long journeys.
The stone child attendants from Jeju that consoled both the living and the dead and the diverse stone arhats from Yeongwol that granted wishes differ in their materials and appearances, but all have much to tell us about being alive.

Ⅰ. Solace by My Side: Stone Child Attendants from Jeju
No matter where you look in Jeju, the rounded soaring oreum volcanic cones peek up.
No matter where you gaze from an oreum, you can spot rows of sandam (dry stone walls) set in squares around burial mounds.
The sandam around the burial mounds provide the deceased with a place for eternal rest.
Inside these stone walls stand child attendants made of stone.
Placed next to the burial mound, they guard the deceased through eternity.
Within the sandam stone walls where bracken grows and thistles bloom, they rest today conversing with the chirping birds.

Ⅱ. A Familiar Smile: The Stone Arhats from Yeongwol
On May 1, 2001, the tip of a shovel leveling ground on a mountain slope in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province struck stone figures buried in groups.
These stone figures awoke in the spring sunshine after hundreds of years.
As the scattered stone fragments were gathered, numerous stone figures were recreated.
They proved to be stone arhats, and no two of them looked the same.
Arhats are saints who have attained enlightenment but live among us and postpone their own entry into the ultimate world.
Even in a temple in which a golden Buddha and Bodhisattvas are seated, the beings to whom we privately open our hearts are the arhats who resemble us the most.
Praying not to fall ill, to live a long life, and for deceased family members not to stray on their final journey.
All sorts of wishes are conveyed to stone arhats.
The stone arhats from Yeongwol reply, “Like us, you are also an arhat.”
Just like the appearance of a saint emerges from a block of stone, the seed of enlightenment is hidden in your flesh.

Ⅲ. Old Stories Retold Today
Old stone figures can tell us stories.
Multi-layered stories of stone, makers, and rainstorms unfold silently on their rough surfaces.
The stories about the origins of the landscape and people of the island, the stories of the introspection embedded in each person’s heart, and the stories of these stone figures are old yet new.
Artists of today recount these stories in their own ways.
Stone figures newly sculpted from Jeju’s stones, a landscape of the mind that unfolds beyond a window, and a moment of life captured in nature.
Let us carefully listen to these old stories retold to us today.