The stage is black, preparing you for sleep; the floor slightly mirrored. The space is empty apart from a curtain of transparent silvery organza fabric whose flowing folds represent the peaks and troughs of a typical sleep brainwave, and between which the dancer will move like a ghost. The dancer enters, pulling a another fabric […]
Category: Event reports and reviews
Write-ups, reports and reviews of Korea-related events, exhibitions, shows etc in London and elsewhere
Review triple bill: the 2019 Festival of Korean Dance
When Kim Jae-Duk’s Modern Table last performed at The Place, it was to close the 2016 K-Music Festival. This year the eight-strong all-male troupe was selected to open the 2019 Festival of Korean Dance at the same venue. With a piece entitled Sok-do (Velocity) the audience perhaps had a hint of what to expect. And […]
Nayeong Jeong: Repeat after “The End of the World”
Nayeong Jeong celebrated the successful completion of her Slade PhD viva the day before with a performance at the opening of the group exhibition “A Dance of Scales”, at Assembly Point in Peckham. Jeong’s work often involves a performative element, and also often involves the use of clay not only as a creative medium but […]
Fun and informative: the Purple A x SOKOLLAB K-Beauty x K-pop workshop
Raymond Sweetman, Founder of Purple A, reports from last weekend’s K-Beauty x K-pop workshop It’s always a worry for event organizers that people might not turn up. A second worry is wondering if people will actually like what you are offering. Very happy to report that last Saturday’s workshop held at The Place (home of […]
Concert notes: Byron Wallen, Jihye Kim and Pouya Ehsaei at Redon
It was hard to believe that Byron Wallen, Jihye Kim and Pouya Ehsaei had not performed together as a trio before – there seemed be such respect and understanding between the musicians, as if they were totally familiar with each other’s ways of playing. The three had shared ideas with each other in advance – […]
BKS / Chatham House Korean Ambassadors talk: the podcast
For those, such as myself, who couldn’t make it to the recent talk on the Diplomatic Outlook on the Korean Peninsula, Chatham House has kindly uploaded a recording of the event, which you can find on the Chatham House website and embedded below. The Guardian picked up one of the earlier soundbites in the on-the-record […]
Exhibition visit: Kimsooja at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
LKL had a mini-break in the Derbyshire Dales last week. And, because the Yorkshire Sculpture Park was but an hour’s drive away from where we were staying, we decided to pay a visit to see the installations by Kimsooja. The weather app promised that the rain was likely to hold off for at least half […]
Review – ATEEZ: The Expedition Tour in London
Cast your minds to the 3rd April 2019 and the O2 Forum in Kentish Town. The weather was less than pleasant. It was cold, raining and at some point during the queueing there was hail. Fans known as ‘Atinys’ were eventually let into the venue at 6pm and, despite being at the back of the […]
BTS perform on Britain’s Got Talent
Last time they were in town for a gig it their chosen UK TV appearance was the BBC’s Graham Norton Show. A small TV studio was not the best place to showcase their talents, but they made the best of circumstances and turned in a good performance despite injuries. This time round the stage was […]
Exhibition visit: Jukhee Kwon in Present Moment, at October Gallery
It was nice to see Jukhee Kwon’s work again in London, after too long a break. The most eye-catching work was one of her extended cascades of paper from a single book: Dipping into Darkness (2013) was hung from the top of the wall, its black-tinted lower end trailing on the floor, making the whole […]
Bongsu Park’s Internal Library / Playground collaboration now online
Bongsu Park’s collaboration with Liam Francis is now available online on the BBC website and also on the Rambert Live site. The live event is presented by Simone Damberg Würtz – Rambert dancer, choreographer and founder of The Playground – and involves artists and performers from all backgrounds who come together to use dance to […]
Exhibition visit: Korean crafts at Collect 2019
Collect at the Saatchi Gallery can always be relied upon to bring together a wide range of high quality crafts, and is a fair where I spend as much time looking at the non-Korean objects as I do the Korean ones. And it’s always wise to keep an eye open, in the non-Korean galleries, because […]
Kingston School of Art and Royal School of Needlework collaborate with Hanbok Advancement Centre
The first stage of an innovative collaboration between the Hanbok Advancement Centre, Kingston School of Art and the Royal School of Needlework had its first public exhibition last week at Kingston University’s Stanley Picker Gallery. The collaboration was the brainchild of Justina Jang, who through Korean British Cultural Exchange shares Korean culture with London and […]
Y Dance at Resolution 2019 – a video of the full performance
For those who were unable to attend the triple bill at The Place in January as part of Resolution 2019, Y Dance have posted a full length video of their moving and slightly unsettling performance, which you can view below. “넋(NEOK): SOUL” is about suffering the mental anguish caused by society, family and even themselves. […]
Catch Bridging Home, London while you still can
Suh Do-ho’s installation at the east end of London Wall will be taken down soon: its planning permission runs out at the end of the month. So catch it while you can. Here’s a few photos I took this afternoon. Thanks to Hannah Giles and 앤서방, here are some images of the work in mid […]
Brief review: Crossroads of Youth
Crossroads of Youth, Korea’s earliest surviving feature-length movie, was a great way to start the season of films from Korea’s colonial period. It is a season that could not have taken place 15 years ago, because these films have only recently come to light in the film archives of Beijing, Moscow and Tokyo. Crossroads of […]
Movie review: E J-Yong – My Brilliant Life
A feelgood Korean drama which the main character has a fatal and incurable disease, and who is writing an account for the benefit of loved ones when he is gone? Been there, done that. Well, not exactly: when the director is E J-Yong and the movie is an adaptation of a Kim Aeran novel, you […]