At his press conference in London last Monday, Oh Tae-seok spoke about his work with the Mohkwa Repertory Company. One of the priorities of Master Oh, who had spend many years as director of Korea’s National Theatre company, is to nurture the next generation of actors. And one of the pleasures of working with his … [Read More]
Category: Event reports and reviews (page 36)
Festival visit: Jasmine Gwangju
Gwangju seems an event from the distant past, but in fact was only 31 years ago. This year, the archives which document the history of that brief uprising were listed by UNESCO in their Memory of the World register. With perfect timing, bearing in mind the democratic uprisings in the Arab world this year, the … [Read More]
Gig Review: Dok2 at the Coronet Theatre
Saharial reports from Sunday’s live Kpop concert It’s not often that London is graced with the presence of Korean Hip-hop, but the Kpop Team announced proudly a month or so ago that they had arranged for Dok2 to have a concert in London, not just to showcase a talented act, but to hopefully pave the … [Read More]
Cosy Korean Cooking with Kie-jo
For over a decade now our little group of UK based Korean adoptees have hoped that we could find someone to teach us how to make our favourite Korean dishes. We love meeting up and eating at our generously sponsored lunches but in the weeks between our lunches, and if we can’t make it that … [Read More]
London YG flashmob gets Korean media attention
Flashmobs don’t normally go on for an hour and a half, nor do they normally travel down to the London Eye and back filmed by most major Korean TV channels, nor do they dance, sing, wave banners and scream their enthusiasm for YG Family. This however is flash mobbing k-pop style and there are no … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Lee Ufan – Marking Infinity at the Guggenheim
Lee Ufan’s current exhibition at the Guggenheim New York is his first major show in the US, and only the third by an Asian at the prestigious space – the previous being by Cai Guo-Qiang (I Want to Believe, 2008) and fellow Korean Paik Nam-june (The Worlds of Nam June Paik, 2000). With three-dimensional installations … [Read More]
SHINee Happy People: fans turn out in force to greet their favourite K-pop band
Saharial joins the Shawols in Abbey Road and catches a glimpse of SMTown’s boy band. Abbey Road at 7.45am lies unsuspecting in the morning sunshine of the hundreds of kpop fans that will swarm the area in support of SHINee who are performing “Japan Debut Premium Reception in London“ (http://youtu.be/codeksErVqU) – a live streamed concert … [Read More]
Baeja at the KCC – well worth a visit
The waistcoat show currently on at the KCC is amazing: beautiful garments, imaginatively displayed. I want them all. The exhibition is only 10 days long: get there soon. # [Read More]
So, what was Korean about the Haewooso garden?
As I looked at the Haewooso garden for the first time, of course the first thing I noticed was the structure at the back of the 4m x 5m plot – the privy after which the Haewooso garden is named. It was set at the end of a rustic path which looked as if it … [Read More]
“A major addition to world literature” – a report from the launch of the translation of Park Kyung-ni’s T’oji
Monday night at the KCC was part celebration, part education: the launch of an English translation of a major portion of one of Korea’s best-loved modern epics: Park Kyung-ni’s Land. The evening was fronted by the translation’s publisher, Global Oriental (now part of the 300 year old Brill publishing house), but the three speakers were … [Read More]
Korea wins Gold medal, best Artisan Garden at Chelsea
It is the first time that a Korean garden has been shown at the Chelsea Flower Show, and designer Jihae Hwang has been rewarded with a gold medal and the accolade of Best Artisan Garden. Rather like at Cannes, where there’s the main event and Un Certain Regard, at Chelsea there’s the Show Gardens and … [Read More]
The London Sillok (aka LKL) – First Book Launch
One of the great things about London Korean Links is that it offers a gateway to Korea for non-Koreans like myself who take comfort in the fact the editor, Philip Gowman, comes at the country from a familiar perspective. There was a glorious sense of understatement about the book launch of the new book, ‘Royal … [Read More]
AKS visit to Standard Chartered art collection
Just returned from Anglo-Korean Society visit to Standard Chartered art collection. No Korean art. But learned about their hot-desking and recycling policies #. Evening rescued by interesting talk by AKS treasurer about the development of SC First Bank since Standard Chartered acquisition. # [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Monologues at the KCC
The current exhibition at the KCC is the first to feature only paintings. All four artists, all of them female, are alumnae of the National Museum of Contemporary Arts’ artist-in-residence programme. The title of the exhibition – Monologues – is strange but apt. One hopes that an exhibition sets up a dialogue between the artist … [Read More]
The Royal Wedding – the Korea-related Tweets
LKL delayed our 2011 Korea Trip by a couple of days so that we could watch the live coverage of the Royal Wedding on TV. Needless to say, while we were watching, we were looking out for Korean angles, and here are the resulting tweets (along with some which have no Korean relevance at all): … [Read More]
Colour photos of Korea in the 1950s
So unusual to see colour photos of Korea in the 1950s. Sorry I missed this talk by Dr John Cornes – last week’s Global Korea Lecture at the KCC. http://bit.ly/fuZjvR # [Read More]