In the first of four articles looking back over 2014, we recall some of the culture, sports and heritage stories that made the news. Arts Dansaekhwa emerged as flavour of the year. Following the MMCA exhibition in 2013 and Joan Kee’s book, Kukje Gallery had a monochrome retrospective, and dansaekhwa artists were included in MMCA … [Read More]
LKL articles by Philip Gowman (page 66)
A comprehensive list of DPRK slogans
In case you ever feel short of inspiring slogans, the WPK Central Committee and Central Military Commission has just published a list of 349 of them. Here’s an example (#344): The revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu and the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners’ call to keep the revolutionary faith even if … [Read More]
An interview with Sora Kim-Russell, translator of Hwang Sok-yong’s Princess Bari
Those of you who came along to the London Book Fair last year and were tantalised by seeing a translation of a passage from Hwang Sok-yong’s Princess Bari – at the time unpublished in English, and with no indication even that any more of the book had been translated – will be delighted by this … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Shin Meekyoung — Painting Series, at HADA Contemporary
According to the notice advertising the exhibition, Shin Meekyoung’s Painting Series questions the values we ascribe to art works: by using expendable material rather than canvas and oils, and by avoiding the depiction of any discernible subject matter, she aims “to question the authority the painting has enjoyed for centuries.” Shin’s soap paintings are meant … [Read More]
In pictures: Young In Hong — In Her Dream, at the ICA
An opulent table set for dinner, with rather unsettling ornaments, greets you in the ICA Theatre for the performance of Young In Hong’s piece In Her Dream. A solo cellist / vocalist starts playing slow arpeggios as four female dancers take their place at table, their eyes blindfolded in black veils. They take their veils … [Read More]
DPRK responds to Shin Dong-hyuk’s inaccurate testimony
Further to the news that Shin Dong-hyuk, the “Camp 14 escapee”, has admitted that some of his testimony was inaccurate, the DPRK has written to the UN Secretary-General and the President of the UN General Assembly seeking to get the 18 December 2014 resolution overturned. The full text of the DPRK’s 2 February 2015 letter … [Read More]
February events 2015
Exhibitions As we get to London Fashion Week, the KCC’s first exhibition of the year is Style Sharing, as part of the International Fashion Showcase, from 16 February Prudential Eye award winner Shin Meekyoung has a solo show at HADA Contemporary from 5 February Hur Shan’s solo show at Gazelli Art House continues all month … [Read More]
Shin Meekyoung and T.O.P receive Prudential Eye awards
London-based South Korean artist Shin Meekyoung won the 2015 Prudential Eye Award in the sculpture category, at a cemerony held in Singapore on 20 January this year. The Prudential Eye Awards were launched in 2014 by the Prudential Eye Programme, a partnership between Parallel Contemporary Art, Saatchi Gallery and Prudential – the collaboration which also … [Read More]
Festival film review: Manshin – Ten Thousand Spirits
What is it that makes Park Chan-kyong’s biopic of Korea’s national shaman so compelling on so many levels? Right from the start, the narrative grips you. We meet Kim Geum-hwa, the subject of the movie, praying for the success of the film. She also prays for the health of the film crew, and asks the … [Read More]
A review of the London Korean Year 2014
2014 was billed as the year of Korean literature, and it lived up to expectations. A number of programmes were geared towards spotlighting Korean literature, central to which was the London Book Fair, where Korea was the Market Focus for the year in an ongoing initiative coordinated by the British Council. The Book Fair itself … [Read More]
The Doctor Who World Tour in Korea
BBC3 have just put out a short programme (the sort of thing you get as an added extra in a DVD boxed set) featuring the World Tour that took place in August 2014 to launch Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor. There’s about 4 minutes of footage of their stopover in Seoul, around 13 minutes … [Read More]
Park Chan-kyong at Iniva – worth an investment of time
If you go along to Park Chan-kyong’s solo show at Iniva, make sure you set aside enough time – at least a couple of hours. And those of you who went to his talk at the Korean Cultural Centre in November last year will wish you had been better prepared on what he was going to … [Read More]
Daewoo, Hyundai and Samsung battle to build the biggest ships
Only two years ago there was the naming ceremony for the world’s largest container ship, the Maersk Triple E built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. At 398m long and with a capacity of 18,270 twenty-foot equivalent containers, the ship had its own website, www.worldslargestship.com. Two days ago, the newest largest container ship, the CSCL … [Read More]
Commentary on The Interview
LKL has been an Interview-free zone, mainly for the reason that we always thought that the film was not a very good idea. But for the sake of pulling together in one place the links to the most interesting commentary on the film, the two best quotes, in the two most interesting articles, come from … [Read More]
I suppose I’ve got to read this, but what a tacky cover!
Oh dear. The story of Shin Sang-ok’s and Choi Eun-hee’s sojourn in North Korea is a compelling one, regardless of whether you think there was compulsion involved. And a book covering film in North Korea is welcome, though Johannes Schönherr has already covered the ground. But do you have to make the book look so … [Read More]
The London Korean Links Awards 2014
Our regular unscientific seasonal post which recognises some of the people, books, films and events which made 2014 an outstanding year. Personality of the Year This year there seem to have been more anti-heroes than heroes – examples to avoid rather than emulate. Villains we loved to hate this year have included the reclusive photographer, … [Read More]