These croissants are actually empty! Korean artist Jimin Lee creates an "Air Bakery"
The realistic baking colors and textures make it hard to tell the real from the fake!
Summary
- South Korean artist Jimin Lee creates "Air Bread" using metal frames and transparent mesh; the works are completely hollow and virtually weightless.
- The toasted colors and surface textures of croissants, toast, and baguettes are delicately recreated.
- "FAKERY" transforms the exhibition into a bakery where you can "only look, not eat," using familiar everyday objects to rethink the memories and emotions they carry.
At first glance, it’s hard to resist taking a bite out of these golden, crispy croissants, toast, and baguettes. Look closer, though, and you’ll find that this “bread” isn’t just inedible—it’s completely hollow. Seoul-based artist Jimin Lee specializes in recreating the everyday objects we know so well as artworks that blur the line between real and fake.
Recreating familiar everyday objects with just metal and mesh
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Born in 1999, the Ewha Womans University Fiber Arts graduate builds the outlines of her objects using delicate metal wireframes, then layers transparent mesh over them. This allows the pieces to hold their shape entirely without filling. From cups and cutlery to different types of food, her creations look almost identical to the real thing from a distance, yet feel as light as an empty shell when you pick them up.
Turning an exhibition into a bakery you can only look at
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For her exhibition “FAKERY,” Lee went ahead and built an entire “fake bakery”! Familiar items like baguettes, croissants, toast, and sandwiches are lined up on display, with their baked coloring and surface textures faithfully recreated. They look as if they just came out of the oven, but their function as food has been stripped away, leaving behind nothing but visual texture and memory.
A game of “playing house” to re-examine the everyday
Images from IG / @leejiminwork
She describes her creative process as an “everyday game of playing house.” A piece of bread is never just an object—it carries emotions and life memories, and the completely empty interiors of her pieces leave space for viewers to project their own feelings. When familiar items suddenly become something you can admire but not taste, it prompts you to look again at the everyday scenes you’ve long taken for granted.
Join Popbee Circle and subscribe to the Popbee newsletter for the latest updates and early access to exclusive perks and discounts! Besides this piece, here are a few other stories worth checking out:
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