Salt-flower Observatory

This place that used to produce salt still has residues of a salt pond. Today, numerous kinds of salt plants and marine life co-exist in this area which has been left alone for a long time. I installed the salt-flower observatory here from which visitors can look down on the entire inland, functioning as the outpost for an artistic eco-park. Around the observatory is a terraced field in which to plant those salt plants which inhabit the local area. I constructed a water in­take facility on this island where water is scarce so that it can always water the plants. Inside the facility, I placed a wooden salt box. The salt, by absorbing moisture, becomes bittern then falls down to a tree which is installed down below.
At the end of Daeseon Embankment Wharf, which connects Daebudo Island and Seongam­do Island, is ‘Donghwan’s kalguksu’ restaurant. Since their noodles come with lots of clams in a very generous portion, local people often go there a lot and the customers always come again. Before the embankment was construct­ed, a lot of tent bars thrived around the wharf. However, the boat-way has been completely blocked and now only ‘Donghwan’s kalguksu’ is left there alone.
Over the dock where ‘Donghwan’s’ is locat­ed, there was a dead tree reminiscent of a large bone of a whale on the shore. Although I was not sure whether it had always been there or if it drifted back here one day, it was deeply imprint­ed in my mind for a long time. I moved this dead tree and installed it under the observatory. Salt absorbing moisture becomes bittern and falls down to the tree; the tree blossoms with salt flowers. As time passes, the tree is gradually turning into a salt flower tree. All these process­es embody a remembrance of those innocent young children who were sacrificed during the period of the Seongam reformatory and of those students who died in the ‘Sewol ferry incident.’ I hope that the young souls who had to throw themselves into the sea and the Sewol ferry students who were victimized for unknown reasons could be reborn as the most beautiful salt flowers.