London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Reports from the London Korean Festival 2017

LKL didn’t make it to this year’s London Korean Festival at Olympia. Saturdays are precious, and I needed to spend this particular Saturday at the KCC doing background research on the current exhibition and upcoming film series which hopefully will inform my write-ups. In-depth reports of the Festival are now available on a couple of … [Read More]

Exhibition visit: Contemporary Korean Ceramics at the V+A

This year-long exhibition as part of the Korea/UK 2017-18 cultural collaboration brings together a range of approaches and responses to Korean ceramics. From work that is purely functional to work that is purely decorative, via work that seeks to critique contemporary Korean society, the unifying element is the quality of the craftsmanship and execution. Yoon … [Read More]

Hurricane Kimchi appears on BBC World News

Heezy Yang, the South Korean artist, performer and activist, is also known for his fabulous alter-ego, the drag queen Hurricane Kimchi. Currently in London for the Queer Asia conference at SOAS where he is performing alongside Chinese feminist and LGBTQ activist Whiskey Chow, he appeared on BBC World News yesterday: Yang has illustrated several LGBT … [Read More]

Korea focus in Greenwich & Docklands International Festival

One of the first performance arts projects of Korea/UK 2017-2018 is a focus on Korean performers at this month’s Greenwich + Docklands International Festival – “London’s leading festival of free outdoor performing arts (theatre, dance, and street arts), an annual 9/10-day celebration of extraordinary outdoor events that transform people’s lives.” Three acts perform in the Greenwich … [Read More]

Exhibition visit: Haenyeo, Women of the Sea, at National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Maritime Greenwich, played host to an exhibition featuring South Korea’s latest inclusion in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Life-size photographs of Jeju’s famous diving women were dotted around a building which began life in 1807 as a school for the children of British seafarers. … [Read More]

Young In Hong’s 5100: Pentagon

Here are a few photos and a video from the two performances of Young In Hong’s work 5100: Pentagon on 4 June 2017 in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly. The performers were all volunteers, of whom fewer turned up than expected because of the terrorist incident in the London bridge … [Read More]

That Robert Kelly BBC interview…

Gathered together in one place for your entertainment… The original live BBC interview with Robert Kelly in March 2017: A follow-up interview with the whole family: Ellen DeGeneres analyses the footage: And the best spoof I’ve come across: The Guardian has an interview with Robert Kelly here. [Read More]

Event news: Musicians from Korea and Japan at Club Inegales

As part of the two-day conference at SOAS, there will be one of Club Inégales’ special evenings of musical improvisation featuring musicians from Korea and Japan: Presence though Sound: Elements of Asia Yi Ji-young (gayagum) – Korea Hyelim Kim (taegum flute) – Korea Jihye Kim (changgo) – Korea Kiku Day (shakuhachi) – Japan + Notes … [Read More]