In the first half of the St John’s recital on Thursday, Lim Hyung-joo concentrated on the more classical end of the popera spectrum. There was a microphone on stage, and Lim stood behind it, but up until the interval the evening was un-miked. Having heard a couple of his performances on YouTube I was wondering … [Read More]
Category: Event reports and reviews (page 51)
Koryo Saram – the Unreliable People
Report of a documentary film screening at SOAS on 2 May, by Michael Rank Koryo Saram – The Unreliable People is a fascinating one-hour documentary about the 200,000 ethnic Koreans who were deported to Kazakhstan by Stalin in 1937. It includes archive footage never seen before outside the former Soviet Union as well as interviews … [Read More]
Conference Report: Modern Encounters and Mutual Perceptions
Thanks to Grace Koh for organising the joint CKS / BAKS half day at SOAS on Wednesday. An interesting sharing of papers, with UK-based academics presenting papers on the British encounters with Korea, and Seoul based academics providing the opposite view. We started with early views of Western civilization as viewed from Korea through their … [Read More]
Roe Kyung-jo: From Canvas to Ceramic
Gallerie Besson, 15 Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, London W1S 4SP 25 April – 24 May 2007 Professor Roe Kyung-jo (노경조) made a rare appearance in London yesterday for the opening of his exhibition at Galerie Besson. Roe’s work was on display in London last year as part of the Traditional Yet Contemporary exhibition … [Read More]
Yegam Inc: BreakOut
Those who have been to see Jump will be familiar with the formula. Some very clever slapstick, a small amount of enforced audience participation, and some excellent acrobatics. Whereas in Jump the acrobatics involved martial arts, in Break Out it involved some pretty impressive breakdancing. With the Taekwondo in Jump, the amazing displays flowed naturally … [Read More]
Catering for the Audience – a review of Sora Kim’s Melting Alaska
Sora Kim — Melting Alaska, BALTIC, Gateshead 14 February – 29 April 2007 Review by Beccy Kennedy Whilst munching on spicy chorizo stotties — a dish given the name Smoky Mountain — we browsed the inimitable menus, commented on the amorous musical medley and read the bright red words stuck to the windows, trying to … [Read More]
“Experience” the mass games without leaving London
Andreas Gursky: new work White Cube Gallery, 23 Mar – 5 May 2007 One day my fairy godmother will wave her wand and magic me an all-expenses paid trip to Pyongyang to see the Arirang festival. Ever since seeing Dan Gordon’s film A State of Mind I’ve been wanting to experience the spectacle live. The … [Read More]
Amnesty International on Human Rights in North and South Korea
Rajiv Narayan’s talk at Chatham House last week about Amnesty International’s activities and concerns on the Korean peninsula was timely but yet somehow seemed to miss the point. I was reminded about the story of a drunk who was found grovelling on the pavement underneath a streetlamp at 3am. A concerned passer-by asked him what … [Read More]
Loanwords in twentieth century Korean literature
The chosen specialist subject of Antonetta Bruno, from La Sapienza in Rome, is Korean shamanism. But she has an interesting sideline in linguistics. Her theme at SOAS’s Centre for Korean Studies last Friday evening (23 Feb) was the extent to which Korean has borrowed words from foreign languages, particularly in the first half of the … [Read More]
A brief visit to the ULKS Korean night
As I wandered unchecked into the Conway Hall last night I had to negotiate several girls wearing hanbok and a chap who was steering a large stepladder into the auditorium. Inside the hall, trestle tables were arranged lengthwise, from the front to the back of the hall, lined with seated students chatting and eating as … [Read More]
Dulsori celebrates New Year in New Malden
The lunar new year came to a girls school in New Malden yesterday with more than a few bangs. Samulnori percussion group Dulsori visited Coombe Girls School in Clarence Avenue for a spectacular one hour concert in front of an enthusiastic audience of pupils and visitors — including the mayor of Kingston. The audience didn’t … [Read More]
No Wonjogyoje, but lots of bum cleavage
You can’t use refined language when it comes to Seunghee Kang’s work. It’s vibrant, lively, robust, and anything but refined. The colours leap out at you, the images full of fun but also somehow disturbing. And it’s difficult to know what to make of them. The centrepiece of the “Odd Couple” show in Bermondsey is … [Read More]
South Korea 1, Greece 0
It was a lacklustre first half, in which neither side looked like scoring. Greece were the more impressive side, but that was not saying much. They were first division, Korea were second division, and we were all expecting a bit of premiership sparkle. Fortunately, though, the half slipped by very quickly. As I had been … [Read More]
Song from the roof-top
Bada Song’s Installation Piece at “So-Called Life” exhibition, Camberwell College of Arts, 11 January – 9 February 2007. Review by Beccy Kennedy The photographs and installation art works displayed in the foyer of the Camberwell College of Arts for “So-called Life” are challenging of our expectations of the exhibition space and also perhaps of our … [Read More]
Event report: Korea Business Reception at London City Hall
By Peter Corbishley On Monday 15th January the glitterati of the Anglo-Korean business worlds were invited to network by Ambassador Cho and Mike Backhouse of Standard Chartered under the auspices of Ken Livingstone and Think London. Over 250 companies accepted invitations to an event originally scheduled to be part of Think Korea 2006, as the … [Read More]
Think Korea 2006: a review of the year
2006 was a great year for Korean culture in London. I can’t rank it against previous years because this was the first time I’ve taken it upon myself actively to follow as many Korean-related events as I can, but for the wide range of things on show I think it must be one of the … [Read More]