At the intersection of Gijanghaean-ro (기장해안로) and Dongamhaean-gil (동암해안길), Gijang-eup, Busan, I came across a peculiar sculpture: a white rabbit wearing a red scarf and holding a moon, accompanied by a blue cat, also wearing a scarf.
At the time, I was unable to identify a precise meaning; I searched through Korean legends, folktales, and folklore without success. However, I noticed that red-scarved rabbits appear repeatedly throughout the artistic installations of Ananti, a coastal enclave conceived as a landscape of inhabitable art, where spaces are transformed into fantastical settings under the concept of Wonderland.
Within this symbolic language, the red scarf functions as a narrative seal — a marker of the “traveler between worlds.” Far from being a simple garment for warmth, it draws from East Asian iconography, where red signifies life, protection, and the boundary between the mundane and the spiritual. Placed at this specific crossroads, the figures act as messengers — or guardians of the threshold — marking the transition from daily urban life into the silent architectural dreamscape of Ananti.
The following reading is a personal interpretation.
This reference subtly resonates with the universe of Alice in Wonderland, yet it offers a unique interpretation of “dream time.” By holding the moon rather than a watch, the rabbit ceases to be a victim of time and instead becomes its keeper. In many cultures, the moon is humanity’s oldest natural clock, a symbol of cyclical, living time rather than mechanical time. The deliberately unusual bluish tone of the cat reinforces this oneiric atmosphere, presenting the sculpture as a fragment of a fairy tale suspended along the modern coast of Gijang — a literal and symbolic portal.
One never knows.
Gijang, Busan, South Korea
“Everything deserves to be looked at twice: once to see it, and once to understand it.”
Camera: Canon EOS 800D / Rebel T7i / Kiss X9i
Lens: TAMRON SP 28-75mm F/2.8 Di A09E
Capture Information:
Focal Length: 28.0 mm
Shutter Speed: 1/2500
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 100
Photo Taken: April 28, 2025
High resolution
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