The Last Day of Research

It finally came down to the last day of research yesterday, only one more full day to go! Throughout the trip, as you know, we have all been doing work towards our own personal research topics as well as an overarching topic of printmaking in South Korea. Every day so far has worked itself into someone’s research and we have been working full steam ahead to make sure that we can learn as much as possible in our short three weeks! It has been an amazing experience, and the last day and a half will be a bit of a break from all of our hard work. I didn’t log on to write about the break (yet) but to tell you about the fruits of yesterday’s labor as our last day on the field!

We got a late start yesterday, giving us a little extra time to sleep in and prepare for the day ahead of us. We left at noon to go back to visit our friend Nam ChunWoo sunsaengnim where he was holding a woodblock demonstration in his Print Research Center. In case you don’t remember this visit you can always revisit this adventure:

https://hellojenna.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/gangnam-style-school-festival/

There’s Nam sunsaengnim in case you’ve already forgotten his face! The demonstration was done by a woman who specialized in traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e techniques, and was currently using her prints to raise money for an organization promoting education in Africa. Talk about using printmaking to be responsibly engaged in the world (a shout out to you Concordia, I saw some BREWing taking place!) Anyways, I took like a bijillion pictures of her process, but through a freak camera accident I no longer have any of them! Augh! So frustrating! She obviously gave her presentation in Korean, but Nam sunsaengnim translated a hand out for us giving us the specifics of her technique. I haven’t been passed the handout yet, so I’ll just give you my quick rundown of the process!

She uses a water based ink, and I believe she mixes it with a sort of watercolor. (all the details of her ink recipe are on the aforementioned handout). She works with both wet and dry paper, as each technique gives a slightly different appearance. Using dry paper allows the ink to absorb more on the surface, and gives a rich, punchy color. Using dry  paper is best when you have strong lines or extreme colors that you want to stand out on the paper. She also uses wet paper, which allows the color to soak in deeper, and provides a soft, watercolor like appearance. For the  demonstration she used wet paper, which she sprayed with water, layered it between newspaper and sprayed again, and then put the whole little package in a sealed bag. She also had a variety of different brushes that she got from Japan and this handy little hand-press thingamabob that looks like a hand sized disk about 1/8 of an inch thick with slightly protruding metal orbs on one side. The other side has a handle so you can push down on the little guy and get even pressure as you move it over your image. Heidi says we have one in the studio, but it’s rather poor quality.

She started by wetting down the back of her woodblock, so that it wouldn’t move around. I thought that this was a pretty clever idea, especially if you’re going to be hand-printing and not using a press! She then wet the area she was going to print by spraying it with water and dabbing off any standing water with a towel. Using one of her brushes she applied the lightest color to the area that she wanted to be that color. She made use of selective inking which I think is much easier!! In order to make an ombre effect she dabbed the paint thickly in one place and then using another brush and some water she smudged the ink around so that it would go from a very rich color to a very soft one. After the block was sufficiently inked she pulled out her paper and rolled it onto the block using an interesting registration technique that I didn’t really get to see. After the paper was securely on the woodblock she put a piece of parchment paper on top of it and went to town using the little hand-printing thing. She moved it around rather quickly, attempting to put the same amount of pressure in every part of the image. She checked it a few times, added more ink in necessary and continued to push. Once she was satisfied with the color she removed it and put it back in between the newspapers. She was using multiple blocks so she just grabbed her next color block and repeated the process over again to print the next darkest color on top.

She also had a new and more innovative technique that she used in order to print thinner lines and dark blacks. She drew into the woodblock like a copper plate and ten put some sort of chemical on the wood that she didn’t want to print. Whatever it was that she put on the block made it so that the ink wouldn’t stick there and she could with away those places before she printed. That way she was able to use her woodblock to print intaglio style! I’m not sure EXACTLY how it works, but it was pretty cool!

It was really nice of Nam Sunsaengnim to invite us to this demo, and you can tell that he was doing everything in his power to foster the love of printmaking! He had books everywhere for people to see, chatted excitedly with all of the teachers and students that were crowded into the studio, and went to the effort to translate what the speaker was saying for us! I asked him how often he had these demos, and if they would still be going on two years from now when I graduate (in case I come back to teach) and he told me that he’d be glad to have me, and that it was important that I still make prints while teaching!

After visiting the Print Research center we went to the Seoul Arts Center to see a new exhibition and meet another contact of Heidi’s. It was a graphic arts exhibition, and it was jam packed with young artists trying to promote themselves. I have to say, out of all the galleries and museums that we’ve looked at I think this one was the most enjoyable, and the most relate able to my topic! Again, not all of my pictures saved, but I do have a few of them to share with you! There were a lot of young artists working with the cute aesthetic that I am researching, which is good because a lot of the older generation are trying to stick to more traditional works. That’s good too of course, but not as helpful to my research 😉

I picked up a LOT of business cards, and I am thinking that I might work with Susan to send them some email questions that I can use for my research. Just some questions about their aesthetic, if they perceive it as “cute”, if cuteness was a conscious decision, and something about the love of cuteness in Korean society. I have a 19 hour plane ride to think of questions tomorrow, so I’ll get things straightened out soon enough! I also noticed the use of quite a few “characters” meaning that the landscapes and imagery would change, but there was a re-occuring figure or character that the audience could relate to. This seems to be popular with Koreans, as I have seen even just coffee shops who have a little character logo that occurs throughout the cafe, or Subway characters, bus characters, and other assorted friends like Rilakuma who seems to be everywhere! Here are a few of the galleries who had a specific “character” in their work.

The use of this character is a really interesting way to capture your audience, and it really makes you become attached to their work! for example, I really love Hello Kitty so if I see a coffee mug with little flowers on it it’s cute but I already have a lot of coffee mugs so I don’t care too much. If I see the same mug with little flowers AND Hello Kitty it’s much more loveable because I can connect to the art through Hello Kitty. Making use of a character like this could potentially be the way that these artists are attempting to bring you closer to their work. You want to follow the little character you know and love, and see what adventures they come across next!! Anyways, my favorite booth at the fair made use of a character like this, and also had some really cute bunnies and BEAUTIFUL work! Here are a few pictures of her section.

Stunning right? All of this thoughts on characters made me realize that most of the artists I have been studying have a character of some sort. Although Kwon Ki Soo is upset that Dongguri is being viewed that way the public certainly sees Dongguri as a character. Other artists like Art Nom, Takahashi Murakami, and Nara all have “characters” that live within the space of their work. Maybe THIS is the key to their popularity with the Korean public. If, as my research has been indicating, Koreans are desperate for a Korean identity perhaps they are looking to these characters to give them a Korean identity. One that is soft, and kind, and can take them away from the real stress of Korean society. These characters represent an ideal through which they can live an alternate life in the worlds that are created by these artists. The use of characters could also go back to the idea of lonliness that many of the artists discussed, and perhaps these characters can be taken as a friend, someone who is also all alone but never upset.

Oh man guys, research epiphany.

A lovely day trip

Today we took a wonderful, and really insightful day trip out to the North Gyeonsang province of South Korea to visit a Zen artist named Monk Bumju. After just recently stayed at Haeinsa I was a little worried about getting Buddhism-ed out, but the trip ended up being delightful, and far more helpful than the temple stay.

Monk Bumju lives high up in the isolated mountains, and we had a three hour taxi ride from Seoul to reach his house. As we passed by smaller villages on the way to visit Bumju Soonim our audacious taxis got a lot of stares, and we were worried that we would be making a scene! Making a scene or not, the mountains that Bumju Soonim lived in were absolutely beautiful, and everyone in my taxi agreed that they really looked like a traditional oriental painting.

His house was lovely, and he had paintings strung just about everywhere. Bumju Soonim is considered a Zen artist, which means that he uses art to practice Buddhism. He is a Monk, but he is also an artist. Because his art is a means of practice for his religion he makes a new one nearly every day, and so they are literally everywhere!

Before we could see any of his work he wanted to discuss with us what it meant to be a Zen Buddhist, a Zen artist, and what exactly it was that he was trying to do. He explained that there are many artists who are inspired by Buddhism, but of practitioners of the Religion there are two main types of Buddhist artists. There are artists who strive to represent a likeness of deities to serve as a symbol for the public, and there are zen artists. Before he could explain what a Zen artist does, he gave us a boatload of metaphors about what it means to be a Zen Buddhist. The most helpful example was his reoccurring idea of glasses. He started by saying that your body, and your “heart-mind” are separate entities that rely on each other in this life. In this case your body is a vehicle and your “heart-mind” is the driver. Anyways, your heart-mind has the capacity to reach enlightenment, and to be a Buddha, as everyone’s does. As you go through life however, all the thoughts and concerns of daily life, and in consequential nonsense clouds your “heart-mind” and it is as if you are wearing dirty glasses. Through Prayer, Meditation, and Practices, Buddhists aim to clean their glasses so that they can eventually reach enlightenment and truly see the world for the way that it truly is. As a Zen artist Bumjo soonim works every day to clear his glasses, and allow a little more of his “heart-mind” to become visible. As he purifies his “heart-mind” he paints, and through this painting he expresses a purifying energy to help clean the glasses of all who look upon his work. That, he said, is the goal of a Zen artist. Not just to portray Buddhist thoughts or emotions, but to spread a purifying energy through their work. Through this, a Zen artist is more than just an artist, who is bound by expression of emotion and all of those other busy thoughts. A Zen artist paints with a clear “heart-mind” and aims to help others achieve enlightenment as well. He said it is the both of best worlds, he uses his painting to help him practice and come closer to enlightenment, and his paintings can also help others do the same. He used a lot more metaphors and stories to get the point across, but hopefully I have summarized his points well enough! It was a really helpful insight into Zen Buddhism, and he was very well articulated on his thoughts!

On a random note, I definitely notice that in Korea people really like to get their food, and then talk over it and totally ignore it. Maybe it’s just when they feel like they are hosts, and are busy explaining something to us, but I know that we had the same experience with Kwon Ki Soo Sunsaengnim and also with Miro Kim Sunsaengnim. They spend so much time telling us things that we feel like we can’t eat until they do!! Here is a picture of what I thought was lunch, but turned out to only be the appetizer!

It was fruit!! I feel like I don’t get enough fruit in Korea so I had to take a picture when it was served to me…! Anyways here is another picture of him talking to us!

After our discussion we went to his exhibition place that was absolutely packed with beautiful work. He told us that normally he doesn’t allow pictures, but because we came all the way from the United States to see his work that he would allow it 🙂

the most amazing thing is that he had at least a part in every piece in this space! There were so many different works, and different mediums, and he did it all! It was amazing work and you could feel the Zen that he was talking about when you were in the room. It was as if all the unnecessary thoughts and concerns were lifted and all you needed to do was look at art. Even Aubrie seemed to be having a good time!

After the exhibition space he told us that it was time for lunch (at 3pm mind you) which was crazy! First of all, I though that Monks ate light, this is not so. Second of all that plate of fruit and ddeok was freaking filling! It doesn’t look like it, but ddeok (rice ball cakes) blow up in your stomach like a balloon and take up all the room! Anyways, this food was much better than the food at Haeinsa, and I felt bad that I was too full to finish it all!

After a nice full meal he took us to visit the nearby Beopjusa temple, which is the largets Buddhist temple in the area. It was absolutely stunning, and we got a little bit of special treatment because we arrived as Bumju Soonim’s personal guests. Here are a few of the pictures that I took at the temple!

Bumju soonim had to leave us a bit early (official monk business) so we wandered around a little while in the mountains beside the temple. It was truly beautiful and got me even more excited for our mountain hiking trip on Sunday!

Yup, South Korea is beautiful! Anyways, it was a great visit and he gave us each one of his paintings! It was such an honor to meet him and he was such a cute old monk!

After our 3 hour taxi ride home we stopped for Shabu-Shabu for dinner, which is apparently a Mongolian thing where you are given meat and vegetables raw to dip into a boiling pot of broth. It’s kind of like Fondue but you’re cooking meat/seafood/vegetables. I wasn’t too hungry so I stuck with veggies and the occasional seafood chunk but it was pretty good! After dinner we split from the professors and headed to the place that I have been hoping to go the entire trip. Yup, the Hello Kitty Cafe deserves it’s own post, and since it’s currently 1am that post will come tomorrow before I leave for the day!

Visit with artist Miro Kim!

All throughout our trip we have been collaborating with the artist Miro Kim who is a friend of Heidi’s. She has been extremely helpful in introducing us to working printmakers, showing us around, and providing us with an adorable little girl to fuss over. Seriously, she’s adorable.

Anyways, the point is that Miro Kim Sunsaengnim has been a HUGE help to us during our stay here in Korea, and an overall joy to meet! We spent all of yesterday with this fantastic artist looking at some of her work and then going shopping!

Honestly, I hadn’t really looked into Miro Kim Sunsaengnim’s work before this visit, and was really pleased to find that her work is AMAZING! I loved every piece that she showed us! She does mostly prints, with a few drawings and paintings thrown in there in a very print like process. (I will explain momentarily). Almost all of her pieces are of animals, in soft muted colors overlapping in different directions. I came to understand that most of her prints were etching or lithograph, and they were absolutely marvelous! She said that she spends a lot of time at the zoo and I can believe it! These animals were beautifully rendered, and her pieces came together so well, oh man, art crush right now!

So, her process was what really struck me as interesting. She said many times that she loves the indirect nature of printmaking, that you aren’t just slapping the paint right on the canvas. I can totally agree with that! Once you get down to putting your pencil or your paintbrush on that really nice paper and making a “final work” it’s super intimidating and that can throw you off. Miro Sunsaengnim prefers to print/draw/paint on a thin almost transparent paper and then glue her prints in layers onto the canvas or final paper. She can achieve the very layered look that she wants without having to work directly on the surface. It is handy, and made for stunning work. Her layering was wonderfully done, and I especially liked her pieces where she attempted to layer different animals to create a “new pattern”. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of these pieces and I can’t find her webpage again!! agh!! Here are some of her prints though!

She also has pieces where she starts with a smaller image and then expands it by adding little collaged pieces. She had a really cool peacock one that was sold so she showed us a picture, and a wonderful porcupine that we got to see up close 🙂

Her subject matter had a lot to do with this idea of being withdrawn, or hiding, which she said related to the idea of the indirect nature of printmaking. She also liked to deal with directions and often portrays animals from multiple viewpoints to get an idea of their potential to go that direction.

Another thing that struck us all was her fluidity with mediums. It actually seems as if all of the artists here flow between mediums, which is odd because the school system is set up to prevent just that. Overall I really enjoyed Miro Sunsaengnim’s work and totally have to find that website again!

After visiting with Miro Kim Sunsaengnim in her studio she also took us to one of her favorite shopping places! I totally wasn’t going to buy anything (I’ve spent so much money) buuuuuut I did find a gift of two and a few awesome shirts for myself 😉

Seoul Museum of Contemporary Art

So, today we had only one thing on our agenda: Visit the Seoul Museum of Contemporary Art. Despite the light load it STILL took us until almost 9pm and we still had a pretty full day!

I would have had a peaceful morning, but due to freak circumstances our alarm didn’t go off and Bridget and I had to rush to get ready this morning! I didn’t get breakfast in my rush but that was okay because for lunch we went to a wonderful seafood restaurant! I guess there is an expression in Korea about restaurants being “the type of place taxi drivers go” because I have heard a few people refer to little diners or maybe they’re drives (I don’t know, ask Guy Fieri the difference) as being a place for taxi drivers… It’s not a bad thing though, apparently taxi drivers know the best and quickest places in town so going to a restaurant for taxi drivers is good? Anyways, they didn’t give us a choice in what to order, they just brought out a buttload of banchans (Korean side dishes like kimchi) and a giant plate of oven fried fish. All of it was wonderful and I ate a LOT of Kimchi… Simon and Martina would be proud.

After we had arrived at the museum I had the realization that this trip had actually made me addicted to coffee. I think all of us are actually addicted. We stop for coffee so often throughout the day that even though I have some in the morning we are all dead by like 2. We had to stop for coffee before we could continue into the sculpture garden, which is one of the only places I was allowed to take pictures! There were some really cool sculptures, and some really weird ones, but hey, it’s modern art what did I expect!

So yeah, it was a lot of fun and the weather was great! Sculpture gardens are usually my favorite part of the museum because you can walk around them, interact with them, and there is usually such a variety of sculptures! When you go into a gallery it’s all neatly organized by theme or artist or medium, but in a sculpture garden you just kind of wander around and look at some cool sculptures. Also, that pink horse is awesome. I want to take it and ride away on it.

Inside was also pretty cool! Waiting to greet us in the front was an installation piece by Nam June Paik, who’s work we have encountered before! It was really cool and really huge, but Aubrie said it gave her a headache if she looked to long at it. The videos moved, so my pictures don’t do it justice, but here’s a shot of it anyways!

We decided to split up and look through the galleries on our own so we didn’t all get tied down in a deep discussion and take up all of our time (that happens guys, when you are with a couple of professors and art majors it totally happens). I really wish that I would have stopped to read more of the descriptions a little better because when I realized about 1/2 way through that they were in English they were all so helpful in giving me some insight into the artists!! The ones that I did read seemed to have a few common themes. Searching for identity, resisting modernity, western/global influence, and Korean Tradition were some of the most common themes. This goes along pretty well with what all of the artists I have talked to said. Most artists that we’ve met have expressed these same ideas of finding their identity in a new global world as well as struggling to find what is Korean in such a global time. The younger artists have also talked a lot about loneliness, even when they are in a large crowd. And struggling to “fit the mold” of Korean society. So, some research has been done!!

It took us about 4 hours to look through the museum and we were all pretty starved after we were done so we stopped at a Korean BBQ place. I actually ordered some Doenjang Jjigae which is totally not Korean BBQ but still delicious! Again, I had a lot of kimchi, but I think that my favorite part of eating out in Korea is trying all of the banchans which are usually the same dish, but seeing how each restaurant makes it differently. Also kimchi is wonderful.

Lauren and Turi wanted to go out for Ice Cream after dinner and Aubrie was instantly on board so we stopped at a convenience store for ice cream! I had a Chocolate “Double Cone” which apparently means no cone in Korea? It was a treat with chocolate ice cream on the top and some sweetened shaved ice on the bottom. It was actually wonderful, just unexpected… Anyways, another good day has passed and only a few more days remain!

Festivitites!

Today was a packed day full of crazy crowds and fun festivities! We started out with a lovely breakfast with the twins that our hostel is named for and ended with a celebration of the Buddha’s Birthday at Jogyesa temple and a very late dinner. Between those two events was a lot of gift shopping and crowd navigating in Insadong!

We found out yesterday that there was an option at our hostel for breakfast! We decided to stop by the little breakfast area this morning for some coffee and toast and met the twins that Twin Rabbit’s Guesthouse is named after!! The twins names are Shi Heun and Da Heun and they are the most adorable little girls that ever lived! Seriously, they’re cute.

After our lovely breakfast we headed back to Insadong to pick up some paper for Heidi and some more gifts for people back home. Insadong was SUPER crowded and it was a struggle just to get anywhere!! We ended up stopping for an early lunch at a little resteraunt where I made the final decision that my favorite dish here in Korea (besides Kimchi which is only a side) is…Sundubu Jjigae! It’s a spicy stew made with seafood, lots of vegetables and soft tofu. Basically it’s wonderful. After we had eaten to our fill we ventured out into the massive crowd. We split into two groups but were terrified of splitting up any more than that! Most of the time we ended up daisy-chaining ourselves just to make sure that we could all get out of a store! We got distracted for a while by a store called ArtBox which had some AWESOME stuff in it! Seriously, I think I could have spent all of my money there. I got a new friend a plush bear pillow that I named DongYul, it means “passion of the east” which I thought suited him 😛 While in Insadong I managed to stay away from clothing stores and picked up some gifts for my mom, dad and aunt! I REALLY hope that they like their gifts, or at least the thought behind them! In case you wanted to see DongYul, here’s a photo of him at one of the coffee shops!!

We made a lot of coffee shop stops today just to escape the crowds and we once again had some delicious Patbingsu. Seriously, I hope that stuff isn’t as fattening as it tastes or I will come back weighing a million pounds!! The 9 of us split a Green Tea and a Coffee Patbingsu and they were pretty good!

After we had finished shopping we met up in a large shopping center and Lauren and Bridget ran up to try the Dong Bang (Poop Bread because it’s in a cutesy poop shape) that they had been wanting to try since last time. It has a soft almost waffle like outside and is filled with chocolate, red bean paste, and walnuts. I tried a bite of Cheryl’s and it was pretty good! I was way too full to eat a full one, after having kimbap and sundubu jjigae for lunch AND Patbingsu I felt like I was going to explode! We decided that attending the festivities of Buddha’s birthday while carrying all of our shopping bags was probably a bad idea so we split up again and a few people brought our stuff to the hostel while the rest of us waited in yet another coffee shop. I think we spend more time in coffee shops than we do researching!!

After we were all together we made our way to Jugyesa temple for the festival. There were lanterns EVERYWHERE and the whole place was decorated to the nines! It was also PACKED. We sardined ourselves into the massive crowd just in time to watch one of the coolest music groups ever perform! They played folk music with a rock edge and it was super cool. They were extremely talented and it was a joy to watch them, even if we were sardined between a bunch of angry older women.

We stopped for a lot of photos and didn’t make it to dinner until like 9:00! I wasn’t very hungry but ended up eating quite a bit because the food was so good! We stopped at a seafood restaraunt and ordered a few different jjigaes, a hameul pajeon, and some pan seared fish. It was all delicious and I currently have a very full tummy!

Tonight I am working on packing for our weekend trip to Haeinsa Temple where we will be staying until Monday. It sounds like it’s going to be a great experience and I can’t wait! I wont be able to update my blog until I get back, because we aren’t bringing any computers, so don’t expect to hear from me for a while!

I was going to try to post the videos of that really cool musical group, but wordpress wont let me 😦

 

 

Min Choi and Namdaemun Market

Unfortnately I didn’t take any photos today on my camera!! I took a couple on the big group camera but I don’t have access to them at the moment so you’re going to have to read this as a boring chunk of text!

Because most of the group had such a late night last night we decided not to start our meetings until 11:30. It was really warm out today so I had to wear something airy for all of our walking around! Thank goodness we did all that walking though, cause for lunch it was Chinese and that stuff seems as fattening as it gets! I had myself a little bit of Jjamppong that I split with Heidi as well as trying some of the Bok Choy and Mushroom stuff! Since I didn’t take any photos myself I’ll post pictures I found online of all the Chinese food I tried…

This is pickled radish, it’s called Danmuji. It’s one of the fairly common sides here in Korea and I’m a fan!

This is the Jjamppong, it’s a spicy sauce with noodles and seafood!

KIMCHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is roughly what the Bok Choy Mushroom dish looked like. It has a really thick sauce that kind of glops off as you eat the Bok Choy…

I also tried a bit of a dish that was like this. It had crab meat and Tofu 🙂 I like Tofu :3

Alright, now that you all know what I had for lunch we can move on!

We met up with Min Choi who is one of the graphic design pair that Cheryl was set to interview! His wife couldn’t make it, but he was really helpful! He also spoke perfect English, like perfect. He talked a lot about tradition in Korea, and believed that at least in Graphic Design (and it seemed other fields as well) there was no KOREAN tradition. He thought that Korea had always been a nation of sharing, and had for so long been outside influenced that they didn’t really have a Korean identity. This is something mentioned by almost all of the artists that I’ve talked to so I’m taking extra special notice to this Korean Identity Crisis that seems to be going on! When asked about uniquely Korean design he said a few interesting things “You can not talk about Korean graphic design in any meaningful way” and “Hangul may be the only Korean part of Korean graphic design”. He seems to think that because graphic design is such a new field in Korea that there really isn’t any Korean-ness to it, and rather all graphic design is western or Japanese and has been adapted by the Koreans. When I asked him about all of the cutesy logos and design that we had taken notice of in Korea he praised the Japanese for having such a great aesthetic eye and then downplayed the Korean versions of cuteness. He was also a little harsh on the idea of tradition, and seemed to think that striving to bring back any sense of tradition was just “faking it”. For this reason he wasn’t a fan of the traditional graphic design rush in the 70’s nor is he a fan of letterpress. We all got the feeling that we shouldn’t put him in the same room with Nam ChunWoo Sunsaengnim because they were both so opinionated on exact opposite sides of the scale!!

We got done with our interview fairly early, and decided to take a trip to Namdaemun market just for the heck of it. It’s more of a traditional market and they sold a lot of Ginseng tea, fruit, and fabric. There were also a lot of folk art craft shops and cutesy little accessory shops but not really any boutiques or anything (which was good because I have bought a LOT of clothes). Although there were some really cute dresses I resisted, and the only thing that I bought was a really cute (and mildly ridiculous) bunny hair clip. Oh man, it’s awesome.

We had some street food for dinner and that was mostly fruit from one of the fruit stands (I had a kiwi, a hunk of melon and a hunk of pineapple), some Kimbap, and another Haemul Panjeon that I split with Lauren (Those things are humungous). Here are some more google images:

This is Kimbap, it’s like the Korean Sushi but I don’t think there is actually raw fish in it.

This is the lovely Haemul Panjeon. It’s yummy and greasy and full of seafood and scallions. Yum!

Um yeah… That’s about it. I also did laundry and wrote this blog post and the last one. So….Um….Yeah.

Gangnam Style + School Festival

Soooo…….. Last night I was dead tired, even though I went home early, and I didn’t update my blog!! So, to explain the title of this post, we weren’t EXACTLY in Gangnam, but close enough that it had to be part of my title 😉 It was really pretty there so I’ll post a few pictures of the city!

We also went to the Hongik University’s School Festival, which was a lot of fun, but not QUITE like the ones you see in anime!

Yesterday we visited a Print Research Center run by the hilarious Nam ChunWoo Sunsaengnim in the morning where we chatted about Printmaking in general, and the general decline of interest in South Korea. Like Jung HyunJo Gyosoonim said at Chugye, Nam ChunWoo Sunsaengnim seemed to think that the printmaking medium took a big hit in the 90’s. The rise of photography as an artistic medium made the reproducibility of prints irrelevant in the public’s eye, and the commercialization of printmaking made them seem cheap and like a form of “low art”. Sunsaengnim seemed concerned not specifically with saving printmaking in Korea, but in general. He wanted to form international conferences to allow for the free exchange of ideas. He believed that this exchange was what made printmakers unique, and that Koreans too were unique for their varied and global intake. It was a bit confusing, but he said the reason that Koreans were so open to new ideas was because they were a peninsula, open to both water and land. I’m not sure if that has any merit to it or whether it was just a nice saying, but it seemed to lend itself well to his next discussion which was about the Korean Identity. Many of the artists that we have met (both of the professors, the students, and Kwon Ki Soo Sunsaengnim) have expressed this confusion about the Korean identity. Nam ChunWoo Sunsaengnim implied that it was because of the global nature of Koreans that they were so impacted by China, Japan, and the United States. In all of this globalization the Korean identity got lost, and artists today are trying to find it.

The work that Sunsaengnim is currently working on is related to this concept of globalization. In this shot he is explaining some of his work which is on the ground in front of him.

 

Part of a children’s exhibit up in the research center.

Another thing that sunsaengnim stressed was the importance of educating our educators. As a part of his job he teaches children about printmaking in order to foster later interest. He said “To sell my work, I teach Children” and believed that “Once they taste it, they love it”. He is working a lot on trying to get more art classes, and especially printmaking into the education system again. Overall, he was a pretty cool guy! He was very forceful about his beliefs, and hard to disagree with, but generally nice 🙂 He also had a great personal collection of art!

Everyone admiring Sunsaengim’s collection of Nam June Paik’s prints.

I really liked these pieces done by a student of his.

Wouldn’t this make a great project for kids in the future? Let each student develop a stamp which they can keep but put them together to make a portrait of the class!

 

After we visited Nam Chun Woo sunsaengnim we took a trip to Hongik University again where we met with JiHyun ssi and toured the festivities of the School Festival!! I had a lot of fun during this afternoon visit and felt like I was inside an anime! There were a lot of really fun games and free stuff run by a company called T World or SK Telecom. We were REALLY popular because we are foreign and we had a paparazzi following us everywhere we went! We got asked to hold up different products or smile while participating in a game. It was really funny! We also got hoards of students following us around trying to sell us fruit or drinks as we walked around the campus. They shouted random English phrases to try to get our attention, it was really cute! I remember this one guy who was running a fruit stand was desperately trying to remember phrases and eventually settled on shouting “Hey! See you Later” over and over again! It was really amusing, and I feel bad that I didn’t buy anything, I was just to full to eat any snacks! They also had some stands that sold homemade jewelry, lotion, some clothes and a girl who did on the spot portraits! We didn’t play many of the games, but did end up playing the water balloon game where we got to throw some water balloons at students. I didn’t throw one, but I did take this awesome picture of Cheryl throwing one 🙂

 

I thought the festival was really fun, and I wish my college would do things like that!! Oh well, I have experienced a real school festival now! JiHyun ssi took us inside the art building where the museum studies majors had set up some really cool exhibitions! The first one was entirely interactive and mostly made up of chairs. I took some pictures of the girls testing out these chairs

We also got a chance to talk to the curators, which was really cool. They let us know what their ideas were in setting up the exhibits and why they chose to place the pieces where they did. The guy who made the second exhibit was really nice (and kind of cute) so I spent a little extra time in his part of the show and snapping some photos 😉

After our quick tour Bridget and I met with a girl named JiHye ssi who was a big fan of Manhwa and was willing to talk with us a bit about art and comics and such! She was really friendly (although super shy) and we had a good time!

After chatting with Jihye ssi we went to dinner with Jihyun ssi and the whole group where we tried some good old tavern food! I REALLY liked the Hameul Pajeon (Seafood pancake) and ate way too much of it!! Since we are all of age in Korea we were offered Soju and Rice Wine, but I did my best to politely decline. Not much of a drinker and don’t plan to be!

After having eaten so much (we had a big lunch with Sunsaengnim too) I was so tired and really needed to sit down so I only went to the night festivities at Hongik for a little while! It was all a little to crazy for me, especially since I wasn’t feeling too well :3 Here are a few pictures that I snapped before I took off for the night!

Chugye University

Hello All! Sorry to update a day late, but I was really tired again last night!!

Yesterday we went to Chugye University for the Arts to visit some of the printmaking classes there!! It was different from our Hongik visit because we  got to visit a few different classes, and just sort of pop in on them. I liked this a lot better, because we weren’t just hovering the entire time it seemed the students were a lot more willing to talk to us! We even made some Facebook friends from his Junior class! (Yay friends Kim MinJeong and Ko Dahee!!)

A group picture of us and our new friends from Chugye University!

We learned that in Korea the printmaking major is pretty much a set track that excludes all other classes. The students who select this major are put in the same classes, in the same order, for all four years. Our guide, Jung Hun Jo Gysoonim told us that about 80% of printmaking students will stick to exclusively printmaking related classes (which include a theory class and some art history) for their time at Chugye. It was really different for us, who don’t really have a printmaking major. We have a studio art major, and even then we only scratch the surface of different techniques! At Chugye (and also at Hongik) there are entire semesters dedicated to one technique. It seemed strange then, that with such intensity in their practice, that printmaking is on such a decline in South Korea! Gyosoonim expressed his dissapointment with us several times abou the state of printmaking in Korea, he said that people didn’t see it as real “art” but as more of a lower middle class craft. Because people don’t see it as art they don’t want to purchase it and the medium suffers.

On a lighter note, here are some photos from our visit to the classes!

The Junior class where we made our new friends!!

🙂

That 3D art seems to be popular with students over here, we have seen it quite a bit!

Look at those presses!

Some giant presses, wish we had some of those!

Rollers half the size of Aubrie!!

This piece was really cool, but we didn’t get to see these students in action!

Each student got their own little work hub, here’s what they looked like.

Another student I wished I could have met, they didn’t show up for class though! This was taken in the graduate student room.

One of the graduate students hard at work!

Another shot of the artist who’s work I liked!

This guy was really cool! He studied abroad in England so he had a touch of an accent and was doing a piece inspired by the Deathly Hallows! He was a fun guy to talk to in the Freshman woodcut class!

The freshman woodcut class!

The campus was really nice, but not as neatly gardened as Hongik. It had a small town feel to it, and was very relaxed! They also had their own building for printmaking studios, we just have the one tiny studio and they have an entire building? What gives Concordia?

The campus

The printmaking building.

The college visit didn’t take very long, but Cheryl spotted a sign advertising the Orchestra performance later that night. While we waited for the performance we headed down to Dongdaemun market were rumors were that you could haggle your way to really cheap stuff. Unfortunately the rumors were over exaggerated and stuff was pretty expensive! We did get some hats (which we needed for our temple visit on Saturday) and I picked up a sweater and some more little gifts!

The Orchestra performance was lovely, and although I’m not a huge music nut I really enjoyed going! They were so talented!!

That’s all for now, but we have another full day ahead of us!

A day with Kwon Ki Soo!

Alright! Today was my big interview day and it went swimmingly!! I had such a great time, and I am really excited to share with everyone who is reading about it!!! The interview went really well, and I will post my full interview after Susan finishes all of the translation, but for know I’ll give everyone the gist of it, and let you know how my day went!

The day started out at 10 when we walked down to Hongdae to send some mail. I didn’t have anything I wanted to send so I stayed outside with Heidi, Aubrie, and Cheryl and had a lovely conversation while putting together a dinosaur puzzle I bought. We stopped at a really big art supply shop where we all oohed and ahhed at the lovely stuff and I may or may not have picked out an art kit for my baby sister’s birthday present 😉 After we were thoroughly shopped we walked down a few allies in Hongdae and shopped some more (I only bought two things, I’m proud!!) and stopped at a really delicious resteraunt for lunch! I had some yummy dumplings that I quite enjoyed! I also tried a red bean ice cream desert to get me all sugared up before my big day!!

At 2:00 we met with Kwon Ki Soo to discuss his work, cuteness, oriental painting, and all things Dongguri! He was quite delightful, and I had a wonderful time! From his interview I quickly realized that Kwon Ki Soo is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He explained to us that he never expected to be so famous, and that people from around the world would be coming to meet him and buy his work. He always saw himself as the “cool artist” who worked for art’s sake. All of that changed with the birth of Dongguri. He told us that while working with a friend who was a curator he decided to give a solo show of some of his doodles, the well known Dongurri was one of these doodles and his art became a spontaneous success! With success has come many opportunities, and he has been able to work with so many different people, ideas, and mediums. Success also has it’s drawbacks. He told us that in America if an artist wants to take a new direction their name alone will support them, the same is not true for Korean artists. If a Korean artist tries to change their direction they will no longer make sales, no longer have a living, and as a new father that isn’t an option for him. Although Dongguri is a part of Kwon Ki Soo he is not all that the artist has to say, and he hopes to someday get the chance to tell darker and more realistic stories.

Although the entire interview is not yet translated, I’ll let you know what it is that we talked about!

I asked him first to tell me about how his training in Oriental Painting has influenced him in the past and influences him in his current work. He told us that Oriental Painting was still very much a part of his work, but that his direction changed when he left college. After being forced to use the same techniques so long in school he was fascinated by the new technology of computers and silkscreening that he wanted to try as many things as possible. He started doing some graphic design work and illustrations while doing his own work on the side. He also expressed how hard it was to be relevant in today’s art world still using the same oriental painting techniques.

Next I asked him about his modernization of the Oriental tradition, and why he felt that his work was so much more approachable to a mass audience. He told me that the answer was tricky, because it was so hard to pin down when it becomes tradition and when it becomes modern. Because of all of the influence from the west and from countries like Japan the Korean tradition is a little jumbled. He believes that most Korean artists struggle with an Identity crisis, because they don’t know if they fit in more with the traditions of ancient Korea, or with the new and hip western art scene. Kwon Ki Soo feels that his identity has been misplaced, and that he is not really a part of either clique. He wishes that people would see his work as having depth, but people don’t always look beyond the cute face of Dongguri.

The third question was about how Dongguri came to be, which is a common question, but a necessary one. I already explained his answer above, but he basically told us that he exhibited his doodles on a whim and found sudden fame for the cute character Dongguri. He wasn’t aware of Dongguri’s meaning, or the deeper implications his work could have until a little introspection. He explained that Dongurri’s name means “circular” or “round” and that Korean children are always told to be round, and not square or angular. This means that they should be easy to get along with, and roll with the punches. He also told us that although Dongguri smiles, it is not always a happy smile, and that he feels that Dongguri is lonely, and he smiles because in Korean culture you have to grin and bear it because there are many things that you can not express in public.

I asked him about Dongguri’s popularity, if he had any idea that Dongguri would be so famous, and how his fame made him feel. He right away told me that he had no idea Dongguri would be so popular. He said that he was just an idea, just doodles that had found their way into a gallery through a friend. He expressed the idea that Dongguri wasn’t a character like Hello Kitty or Murakami’s DOB, but rather a symbol. Dongurri can act as Kwon Ki Soo, as a surrogate viewer, or as the most basic sign of modern man. Although Dongguri technically has no race, age or gender he is a little biased because of Kwon Ki Soo’s gender, and is therefore typically seen as male. As a symbol among the craziness that is the world around him he wants me to recognize the fact Dongguri has more emotions than the flatness that people often attribute to artists like Takahashi Murakami. He feels that Murakami’s work is too flat, and lacks philosophical meaning. He dislikes when people compare him to Murakami, because although the two are aesthetically similar they have completely different intentions. While Murakami intends to expose the flatness of Japanese culture Kwon Ki Soo wishes to express the richness of Korean Tradition and to take a philosophical look at the way that the modern man deals with society.

Going back to the idea of Dongguri being seen as a “cute” character, I asked him if he thinks that the Korean embrace of cuteness was related to the sudden popularity of Dongguri. He didn’t seem to like the word cute, and that it was being used to describe his work. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Dongguri was cute, but rather that he is afraid that that is all people think of him. He also told us that Korea’s cuteness overload is rather recent, and is all thanks to Japanese influence in the early 2000’s. He didn’t intend to tap into this particular segment of pop-culture, it just sort of happened, and Dongguri became a popular figure among Korean members of the cute culture.  He then explained to us about some of the work that he had been doing before Dongguri, which had a more serious and social critique feel to it.

I asked him if he would try to go back to this style, and if he felt it was time for a change. He agreed, and told us about how hard it is for a Korean artist to change their work after they had already been labeled a “pop-artist” he doesn’t think people would be able to accept the new him, and that other artists wouldn’t take him seriously because of his association with artists like Murakami. If he were to change his work in any way he would probably have his assistants continue the story of Dongguri and he would work on his own things in private.

He then discussed the issues between different artist “cliques” and how he struggled to find his identity within one. He explained that many artists chose to study only oriental painting, and remain a true Korean artist (as much as that is popular in today’s day). Others moved and studied abroad and tried to place themselves within the western tradition. He said that even if these two artists were to be working with the same subject matter they would never see eye to eye. Despite a common background, western and eastern art have entirely different goals and ideas that they want to express, and totally different ways of expressing them. When Heidi later asked about the use of landscape in his pieces he told us that it was a Korean tradition to paint the landscape of the mind, which is something that is hard for western artists to comprehend. These things made it impossible to cross over into both cliques and find a clear medium between the two.

At the end of our time we discussed the future, and what things he hoped to do, fun things he had tried and I asked him about the public art exhibit he just finished. I will talk more about this in my full interview post 🙂

 

After my interview we got a lovely tour of his studio, and met some of his assistants! I got a picture with him as I had hoped, but I’m too lazy to get my pictures loaded right now so they will be included in my full interview post. He also agreed to go to dinner with us and gave us some AWESOME souvenirs!

We headed to a cafe to wait for dinner (as it was only two hours away) and discussed the visit amongst ourselves. We all felt a little sad for Kwon Ki Soo, and hoped that in the future he would be accepted no matter what direction he chose. We also agreed that talking to him, and learning about the rich culture and meaning behind his work made us even bigger fans 🙂

Dinner was wonderful and GIGANTIC!! we went to a Chinese resteraunt, and Kwon Ki Soo ordered us so much food that I knew I was going to explode before it even started to arrive. I can’t even remember half of the things that I tried, but they were all delicious and I felt sufficiently stuffed after our meal.

We were so stuffed in fact that Bridget and I decided to go on a walk after dinner to walk off some of that heavy food in our stomach! We walked to Hongdae and around the area for a while to get a feel for night life in Hongdae. It was fun and we got to see a live performance, lots of street vendors, preparations for tomorrow’s school festival (which we are totally going to), and some interesting people roaming the streets. It was a nice end to a great day!

Overall, meeting Kwon Ki Soo was totally awesome. He was REALLY nice, and a great guy. He had a lot of thoughtful answers to my questions and was a joy to interview! I can’t wait to post the full interview for you guys and eventually probably another post re-examining it and figuring out what this means for my research 🙂 Until next time!

The Sweet Escape: Cuteness as an escape from difficult realities

Now that I have only a week until I fly out to South Korea it is high time that I took this Superlfat party from Japan to the wonderful country I will soon be visiting. In my research I plan to examine the cuteness aspect of the Superflat movement, as well as the idea of the blending of “high” and “low” art. Before I can understand how this abundant adorableness has impacted the art of South Korea I must examine the idea of cuteness itself. What is cute? And most importantly, why has the concept of cuteness become such a widespread phenomenon within Japan and Korea?

There are many different theories surrounding the popularity of cuteness. Takahashi Murakami believes that it was Japan’s way of rebounding after World War 2, other scholars find that it was a natural progression from the flattened space in traditional Ukiyo-e prints. I want to focus on the idea of cuteness as an escape from the reality of adulthood. Scholars like Mary Roach, Sharon Kinsella, and Karel van Wolferen have been some of the lead scholars looking into Japan’s regression into childhood, and I wish to argue that many of the same reasons can be applied to the Korean love for the adorable.

So lets take a look at Japan. Dutch Journalist Karel van Wolferen describes Japanese culture as one that “Doesn’t make people happy”. In his article Japan: A System That Doesn’t Make People Happy he discusses various aspects of Modern Japanese life that make adulthood a living hell. The constant stress of conformity, and the ever looming “Salaryman” are one of these aspects. He explains that in Japan each youth is expected to grow up to be the same, well behaved, and personality lacking salaryman. In order to transform themselves from their bustling youth to a well mannered member of society they endure grueling schooling that places an immense amount of pressure on Japanese adolescents. He discusses the intense competition to get into a good high school (which sets the pace for the rest of your life), and the extreme suicide rate among Japanese citizens. In a culture like this author Mary Roach believes that it is only natural for adults to desire to go back to a time when they weren’t under this pressure. She quotes anthropologist Merry White discussing the idea of childhood in Japan where young children are sheltered, nurtured and indulged. Looking back on this idea it is only natural that during high stress periods of your life one would long for the nurture and love that they felt when they were a child. Scholar Sharon Kinsella believes that they can find this nurture and love through cuteness. The very concept of cuteness is based on childhood. When conducting her survey in Japan Kinsella asked Japanese citizens to describe cuteness and what made something cute. All of them related it to childhood, innocence or naivety. The Japanese word for cute (Kawaii) comes from the word Kawayui which can mean either “shy” or “pathetic, vulnerable, and small”. She explains that Japanese adults long for a time before the stress and responsibility of adulthood and wish to connect to the small, and vulnerable child of their youth.

And on to South Korea we go! One of Wolferen’s biggest points is the Japanese stress to conform. He believes this stems out of Confucianism ideals of equality and the collectivist world view held by Japanese society. These arguments can very well be extended to South Korea where the concepts of Neo-Confucianism have been a leading philosophy since the Joseon era in the late 14th century. It was, in fact, through South Korea that Japan came to adapt these views in the late 16th and early 17th century. Because these countries both have the same underlying philosophy behind their restraining equality and forced conformity it would make sense that Wolferen’s argument about cuteness offering an escape from the conformist society would extend to South Korea as well.  Wolferen also puts emphasis into the difficulty of school life in Japan, and how this tough adolescence leads to adults who yearn for their childhood. I would argue that school in Korea is just as, if not more stressful for young Korean students. The average high school students spends approximately 10 hours in school in South Korea. Between their normal school day, private tutoring, and possible attendance of a Hagwon Korean youth often stay at school from 8:00 am to 9:30 pm. (Japanese school days average from about 8:00 am to 4:00 pm with extra curricular activities each day until 6 or 7pm). They also often have school during the Weekends for extra preparation for college exams. These exams are just as intense, and have the same high-stakes results as the high school entrance exams described by Wolferen in his study of Japanese schooling. Along with the grueling school hours Korean youth have considerably less time for extracurricular activities, friendships, jobs, and home cooked meals. Wolferen’s argument about the suicide rate of Japan is also beat out by Koreans. In 2011 Korea was the country with the second highest suicide rate, a whooping 8 spots above Japan who placed 10th on the same list put together by the World Health Organization.

So if Korea has the same underlying philosophy of conformity, the same, if not more intense, stress put on school children, and an even higher suicide rate than Japan does it not make sense that all of Wolferen’s arguments about the culture of cute as an escape from a high stress society would also extend to South Korea? If these arguments can be extended, which I believe they can, it would also apply that South Koreans yearn for the same childhood innocence before the striking reality of adulthood. The idea of cuteness is in fact present in Korea, and the terms 귀여워 (Gwi-yo-weo) and 애교 (Aegyo) are becoming more and more commonplace. 귀여워 has much the same meaning as Kawaii does, and is used to describe something as being small, childlike and cute. the term 애교 is used to describe the act of “acting cute” someone who is being Aegyo will use a whiny childlike voice, over-exaggerated expressions and dress in such a way to represent childhood. This phenomenon mirrors the Kawaisa behavior that Sharon Kinsella described as coming from the followers of the culture of cute in Japan. It is clear that the same things that are happening in Japan with the culture of cute are also occurring in South Korea. That being said, we can now begin to see the effects of this sweet escape on the art of contemporary Korean artists. Artist Kwon Ki Soo uses his cute figure Dongguri as an icon of endurance. He places Dongguri, ever smiling in childlike naivety, amidst traditional Korean lanscapes and symbols that point to the difficulty and endurance of the Korean citizen. Noo Ddong-Ba brings childlike fantasies to life in her fun and cute illustrations-gone-fine art, and ArtNom places his own image among a cute and colorful fairy tale world in order to escape the monotony of Korean life.