In September this year 90 year old survivor of WW2 Japanese military sexual slavery Kim Bok-dong gave two public talks in London, at the Korean Cultural Centre and at Goldsmiths University. She said she had come, ‘not as a victim but as a human rights activist’, and explained that the surviving ladies were not just … [Read More]
Month: December 2015
SOAS Centre of Korean Studies early 2016 seminars
SOAS’s Centre of Korean Studies has announced its seminar programme for the first few months of 2016: Date Speaker Topic 22 Jan Professor Hazel Smith North Korea: Markets and Military Rule 29 Jan Dr. Janet Poole Picturing a Moment: The Photograph and the Newspaper in Early Colonial Korea 5 Feb Patrick Messerlin, Jimmyn Parc The … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Korean artists at APT8
The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) has been hosting the Asia Pacific Triennial since 1993. The exhibition features artists from all over the region, and Korea has been represented from the start. The triennial is spread over two buildings (the QAG itself and the nearby Gallery of Modern Art which opened in 2006) which collectively are … [Read More]
Statements on the Comfort Women issue
Statements published jointly today by the Japanese and South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs aim to bring closure to the issue of wartime sexual slavery. The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan also published a statement on the inter-governmental announcements, which says that the issue is by no means … [Read More]
Season’s Greetings to all our readers
Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to all of LKL’s readers, friends and contributors. Have a peaceful break. Once again thanks are due to Jieun Kim aka The Drawing Hand for the London Korean Christmas design. Jieun responded wonderfully to my slightly crazy brief: to combine the River Thames with a traditional 일월오봉도 … [Read More]
Event news: Social Change in North Korea – Current Trends and Future Prospects
The Chatham House Asia programme seems to be beginning to turn its attention back to the Korean Peninsula after a gap of a couple of years: Social Change in North Korea: Current Trends and Future Prospects 8 Jan 2016 – 12:30 to 13:30 Registration required. Participants Sokeel Park, Director of Research & Strategy, Liberty in … [Read More]
Roger Law’s Art and Seoul on Radio 4 this week
A couple of months ago I spent an hour in a BBC studio with ceramic artist Roger Law (whom many UK readers will remember as one half of the Spitting Image team). The subject – Korea. Roger Law had already done a well-received quirky radio series on China and this was to be his Korean … [Read More]
Dami Eniola introduces Gugak Sounds, London’s traditional Korean music radio station
My name is Dami, I currently study at SOAS university majoring in music performance. My area of study focus is mainly on Korean music. A passion which I have decided to share with people through my radio program called Gugak Sounds. As a foreigner to Korea, understanding the various genres of Korean traditional music was … [Read More]
Exhibition news: Park Seo-Bo — Ecriture 1967-1981
One of the big exhibitions opening in January is a solo show by Park Seo-bo, a key Dansaekhwa artist. Definitely an exhibition I’m looking forward to. Park Seo-Bo: Ecriture 1967-1981 Preview: Thursday 14 January, 6-8pm 15 January – 12 March 2016 White Cube Mason’s Yard | 25 – 26 Mason’s Yard | London SW1Y 6BU … [Read More]
The growing interest in Dansaekhwa
The Nation has an interesting piece by Barry Schwabsky on the recent growth in interest in Dansaekhwa in the States, pointing out that during November New York simultaneously hosted three solo shows by major artists: Chung Chang-sup at Gallerie Perrotin (3 Nov – 23 Dec) Yun Hyong-keun at Blum & Poe (30 Oct – 23 Dec) Ha Chong-hyun … [Read More]
Seoul and London forge friendly-city ties
A press release just published by the Seoul Metropolitan Government: Seoul and London forge friendly-city ties SEOUL, 18 December 2015: Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has recently forged closer inter-city ties with London, the city known as a global center of diverse sectors, including art, economy, finance, fashion, medical services, tourism, and transportation. Seoul Mayor Park … [Read More]
Event news: P’yongyang – a new play by In-Sook Chappell
Long-term followers of things Korean in London may remember In-Sook Chappell’s award-winning first play This Isn’t Romance. Her sophomore production gets its premiere in January 2016: P’yongyang, by In-Sook Chappell Finborough Theatre | 118 Finborough Road | London SW10 9ED | www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk | @finborough Tue 5 Jan – Sat 30 Jan 2016 Tue to Sat … [Read More]
Event news: launch of Han Kang’s Human Acts
Three separate opportunities to hear Han Kang talk about her newly-translated book, Human Acts – a Norwich appearance sandwiched in between two London ones. If you can’t wait to get hold of a copy of the book, Foyles (whose event is 13 Jan) claim they have “exclusive availability of Human Acts for a full month … [Read More]
Film review: Perfect Proposal
Ji-yeon, a penniless bar girl in Macao in debt to some loan sharks is given the opportunity of a new life if she manages to get a super-rich tycoon to marry her. In league with the tycoon’s estranged son, it seems that with her natural charms and honesty she will win the cantankerous and eccentric … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Sora Kim’s 2,3 at the KCC
Sora Kim’s 2,3 is her first solo show in London, put together as part of the second outing of the KCCUK’s Artist of the Year programme whose objective is to “introduce aspects of Korea’s vibrant art scene to a UK audience.” The exhibition is an interesting concept in which none of the individual works presented … [Read More]
Film Review: Wonderful Nightmare
Owing to an administrative cock-up at the Pearly Gates, rich, single, hard-nosed, man-hating lawyer Lee Yeon-woo, whose main client is an evil construction company, meets an early death. She is given a chance to resume her life, but only on condition that she first, for one month only, lives the life of a mother-of-two married … [Read More]