Gradually more real-life events are appearing in the calendar, but while we wait for things to catch up with the improved Covid situation, let’s get out and enjoy the weather after such a dismal May. Special Events The British Korean Society is arranging an event to honour British veterans of the Korean War on Thursday […]
Author: Philip Gowman
When a PowerPoint presentation can hold your attention for almost two hours…
How long is it since the time when we could go in person to a talk given by a real person in an actual physical room? I reckon it’s around 15 months. Since the beginning of March last year, Zoom has been the norm. Online talks do have advantages over a traditional lecture theatre: you can […]
May events 2021
Despite the gradual easing of the lockdown, things are still mostly online. Only Han Collection seems to be welcoming real-life visitors (do pay them a visit, and while you’re in the area pop into the contemporary ceramics showroom at 63 Great Russell Street – you’ll usually find work by at least one Korean potter in […]
London and Seoul unite with giant Hockney video screening
CIRCA, a new platform showcasing digital art both online and in a public space in the heart of London, has commissioned a digital artwork from David Hockney which will be on show in London and Seoul, plus LA, New York and Tokyo, during May. In London, the display will be on the big screen at […]
Traditional Korean Ink Painting Workshop
The KCCUK has announced a new cultural course for spring/summer 2021. Artist-researcher Dr Young Maeng will introduce traditional Korean ink painting and demonstrate a variety of painting techniques for beginners. Traditional Korean Ink Painting Workshops Wednesday, 28 April / Friday, 30 April, 7pm-8pm Online Webinar | Free – Booking Essential How to Apply: E-mail to […]
Book review: Kim Soom – One Left
When the issue of comfort women has been with us since the Pacific War, to re-emerge in 1991 when Kim Haksun came forward as the first to announce herself as victim, it is astonishing that we had to wait until 2016 for what is, according to Bonnie Oh’s introduction (p ix), “the first Korean novel […]
April events 2021
Exhibitions Han Collection will be exhibiting the ceramics from Icheon that it featured online for Collect earlier this year, from 12 April The KCC is hosting a season of artist videos, with a limited online viewing window, starting 6 April Pontone Gallery is hosting an online exhibition featuring the work of Lee Jeonglok Screenings Minari […]
Gallery: Jewyo Rhii’s “Love Your Depot”
The 2020 KCC Artist of the Year exhibition featuring Jewyo Rhii was of course a victim of the intermittent Covid lockdown. Even though the exhibition was, at various times that I can no longer remember, theoretically open to the public, there wasn’t much public around in Central London to visit it. I managed to pay […]
Michael Gibb’s Korean Odyssey: a great way to enjoy Korea without the the visa and quarantine
If I were to win an insane amount of money on the lottery, here’s how I might spend it. I’d charter a boat (and crew – I’m no sailor), and maybe a guide / interpreter, and go on a slow sea voyage for a couple of months from Busan to Mokpo, taking in some of […]
March events 2021
Our Korean cultural fixes are sadly still exclusively online. One year into the lockdown, maybe I’m beginning to suffer from Zoom fatigue: the coming month feels the most barren for a while. Current highlight is the tail end of the Glasgow Film Festival, at which Korea is the focus country. But I’ll be aiming to […]
Bae Myung-hoon’s Tower could be the most fun thing you read this year
Bae Myung-hoon’s Tower is the first of several science fiction books to reach us this year, and if the rest are as good as this we’re in for an enjoyable time. It’s his first full-length work to be translated into English, and also translator Sung Ryu’s first book. She has two further titles coming out […]
Korea Future Week: Coronavirus and Beyond
The LSE Student Union’s annual Korea Future Forum moves online in 2021. Further details below. Korea Future Week: Coronavirus and Beyond We are thrilled to announce our main flagship event of this academic year: Korea Future Week. This event consists of 4 panels with 4 distinct agendas: 22 Feb, 12-2pm: Economic Implications of COVID-19 | […]
February events 2021
As we approach the first anniversary of the UK lockdown, cultural organisations and academic institutions are getting into their stride with providing content online. While we still suffer from the lack of face-to-face communication and the ability to see works of art in the flesh, there seems to be an increasing range of other content […]
Building bridges between North and South in New Malden
We do not need reminding that the Korean peninsula is divided. But the implications of that division for Koreans in Britain are not so obvious. I remember at a British Korean Society event ten years ago at which the North and South Korean Ambassadors were speaking, as audience and speakers mingled over drinks afterwards, one […]
Eighteen non-fiction titles we’re hoping to enjoy this year [updated]
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Here are some of the books we’re looking forward to in 2021. For the first time in one of these posts we’re flagging the indicative cost of the titles listed here. For me, I have a psychological barrier at around £30: a book has to be offering something pretty special for me to be prepared […]
Book review: Yi In-hwa’s Everlasting Empire
Some time ago I watched Park Chong-wan’s 1995 historical mystery movie Eternal Empire on DVD, having purchased it on the strength of its inclusion in Darcy Paquet’s list of top films from the 1990s. I must have been tired when I watched it: I simply have no recollection of what I thought of it, though […]