INFO
| Name | Steven Junil Park (he/him) |
| Also known as | 6x4, 박준일 |
| Born | 1992 |
| Country of Birth | South Korea |
| Place of Residence | Ōtautahi Christchurch |
| Ethnicities | Korean |
| Artform | Fashion, Craft/Object, Jewellery |
| Decades Active | 2010s, 2020s |
ABOUT
Under the label 6x4, Steven Junil Park 박준일 handcrafts one-off functional objects such as garments, shoes, jewellery and furniture. He has embraced many different craft traditions and outlets for his practice: producing costumes for theatre shows, exhibiting his work in galleries, selling pieces in retail stores, and using and wearing the things he makes himself.
Park’s family moved to Aotearoa from South Korea when he was 6 months old. He studied at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland and spent a year working in the fashion industry in Paris in 2016, including for Comme des Garçons. These experiences have informed the style Park has developed, which blends Western and East Asian garment history influences and does not adhere to gendered clothing conventions. He says, “I think of making as a conversation between maker and material. I am drawn to making functional objects as they seem to hold secrets as to what it means to be human.”
Resourcefulness and a careful consideration of materials guide Park’s approach, which has evolved in response to the excessive and environmentally damaging textile industry. Park uses natural and salvaged materials almost exclusively. This includes dyeing fabric using items such as dried avocado pits and foraged walnut hulls and using techniques such as jogakbo (a form of Korean patchwork) to create garments from fabric offcuts.
Park has created costumes for musician Aldous Harding, as well as for theatre productions and dancers like Amit Noy, Jahra Wasasala, Josie Archer and Kosta Bogoievski. He has worked with theatremaker Nathan Joe several times, including designing and making the garments for the 2022 season of Joe’s play, Scenes from a Yellow Peril.
In 2023 Park was a recipient of Dame Doreen’s Gift, an obligation-free gift of $10,000 awarded by the Blumhardt Foundation to an “establishing” object/craft practitioner (awarded annually alongside a $10,000 gift for a mid-career maker). The Foundation noted their admiration for “his relentless commitment to demonstrating the contemporary relevance of the handmade.”
LINKS
Key works / presentations
2023 — The Fading Memory of the Scribe, Public Record, Tāmaki Makaurau, with Johnny Electric
2023 — Cook & Company, Objectspace, Tāmaki Makaurau, collaborative retrospective of Octavia Cook jewellery
2022 — Scenes from a Yellow Peril by Nathan Joe, Auckland Theatre Company, Tāmaki Makaurau
2022 — twisting, turning, winding: takatāpui + queer objects, Objectspace, Tāmaki Makaurau
2019 — Zoo Eyes music video, directed by Aldous Harding and Martin Sagadin
Key awards
2023 — Dame Doreen’s Gift, Blumhardt Foundation
2020-2021 — CNZ maker in residence at Rekindle, Ōtautahi Christchurch
