Kingston’s Koreans today celebrated the 73rd anniversary of Independence Day. It was the first public engagement of the new ambassador, HE Park Eun-ha, who is to be thanked for making the time: she only arrived in London to take up her post two days ago. In attendance were Kingston’s Mayor, Thay Thayalan, and the leader … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 32)
8 more reasons to visit Lee Bul: Crashing
Lee Bul’s fabulous show at the Hayward Gallery closes this weekend. If you haven’t seen it yet, here are eight more reasons why you should. 1. Park Chung-hee naked OK, a rather sensationalist opener, and not something I ever expected to find myself writing, but yes: suspended from the ceiling are two naked effigies of … [Read More]
Movie review double bill: Along with the Gods 1 and 2
Somehow, I managed to miss last year’s fantasy blockbuster Along with the Gods. I didn’t spot that it got a brief UK release until it was too late, and the movie didn’t make to any of the UK festivals to my knowledge. I didn’t even read any reviews. But it registered in my brain as … [Read More]
Book review: Mary Lynn Bracht — White Chrysanthemum
Mary Lynn Bracht: White Chrysanthemum Penguin Random House 2018, 320pp White Chrysanthemum, the debut novel from Mary Lynn Bracht, tells the story of two sisters, brought up on Jeju Island, who were tragically separated in the last years of the Second World War. The elder sister, Hana, is abducted into sexual slavery by a Japanese … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Lee Bul – Crashing. Pt 2 – Scale of Tongue
The most eye-catching work in Lee Bul’s Hayward Gallery exhibition is the giant inflatable zeppelin, its grid of rectangular silver panels echoing the grid of skylights in the Hayward’s newly refurbished upper floor. The work, entitled Willing to be Vulnerable, memorialises the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, when the giant airship, representing a possible future of … [Read More]
August events 2018
Exhibitions If you haven’t been to Lee Bul’s solo show at the Hayward Gallery yet, make sure you get there before it closes on 19 August. Lee Ufan’s installation at the Serpentine will remain in place until early 2019 The KCC’s August exhibition, Hyen Jungyoon’s Walking on Tiptoes, opens on 6 Aug Park Neung-saeng’s Travelling … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Lee Bul – Crashing. Pt 1 – Heaven and Earth
I thought I had come across most of Lee Bul’s work before, either physically (at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, 2014 and various gallery visits in Seoul) or through articles and books. But one work in the Hayward Gallery’s solo show caught me by surprise. Heaven and Earth (2007) is a larger-than-life reconstruction of the type … [Read More]
I wonder how many people actually saw the full Halo…
As part of the Korea/UK season of cultural collaboration, Kimchi and Chips, a Seoul-based art studio founded by Elliot Woods (UK) and Mimi Son (South Korea) installed a large work entitled Halo in the public space of the Somerset House courtyard for the month of June. In perfect conditions (full sun, no cloud, no breeze), … [Read More]
Theatre visit: a changgeuk Trojan Women
An adaptation of a Greek play more than 2400 years old interpreted through the medium of an early 20th century Korean performing practice does not immediately sound a promising theatrical experience, except perhaps to the handful of people who appreciate both Euripides’s take on Homer and Changgeuk’s adaptation of Pansori. Nevertheless, the Purcell Room had … [Read More]
Kimsooja’s London Olympics project lives on
Surfing the web recently, following a link related to UK based Korean artist / photographer Bae Chan-hyo, I came across this article in the New York Times on the subject of thirteen artists dealing with the subject of migration. Apart from the piece on Bae, which highlighted some new work of his from 2018 (which … [Read More]
RIP Bill Speakman VC
The funeral was held this week for Bill Speakman, the so-called Beer Bottle VC. The ceremony was held on 19 July in the Wren Chapel at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, where Speakman was a pensioner. He died peacefully at the Hospital on 20 June 2018, aged 90, surrounded by members of his family. Obituaries can be … [Read More]
An introduction to the LKFF summer documentary fortnight
I’m glad the KCC is spreading out the goodness of the London Korean Film Festival throughout the year. That first week or so in November gets far too congested with all the competing strands of the festival (with additional competition from LEAFF and the K-music festival). So to have the high-quality teasers earlier in the … [Read More]
New books for the summer
A couple of new books to take with you on your summer break – or, more likely in respect of the first on the list, to adorn your coffee table when you return. First, fulsomely reviewed by Andrew Salmon in Asia Times, comes Inside North Korea by The Guardian‘s architecture and design critic Oliver Wainwright … [Read More]
The 2018 K-Music festival: full programme announced
The schedule for the 2018 K-Music festival has been released in plenty of time, giving everyone the time to plan their diaries. Here is the official press release. Tickets are already on sale. K-Music 2018 2 October – 20 November 2018 Tickets on sale from Friday 6 July – www.serious.org.uk/k-music Find out more at www.k-music.co.uk … [Read More]
Kim Aeran’s visit to London
At the end of June Kim Aeran was in town, courtesy of the Asia Literary Review and the Literary Translation institute of Korea, to meet the finalists of the 2018 essay contest in which readers were given free rein to write about one or all of three of her works: two short stories: A Dignified … [Read More]
Book review: Pyun Hye-young – Evening Proposal
Pyun Hye-young: Evening Proposal Translated by Youngsuk Park and Gloria Cosgrove Smith Originally published as 저녁의 구애, Moonji Publishing, 2011 After the somewhat gory content of Pyun’s story Corpses – published in the Waxen Wings anthology – in which a woman’s body parts keep appearing, it was with some nervousness that I started reading Pyun’s An … [Read More]