Sunday 22nd October
Insadong is a wonderful area, full of galleries with varied work and I spent much of yesterday visiting some of the few contemporary craft galleries here and in an area West of where I am staying which was a bit like the Hampstead version of Seoul - hilly and lined with chi-chi shops with dressed up young Koreans and very lively - less touristy than Insadong which has the an air of Covent Garden.
Each of the gallery owners, once we had started talking, sat me down and offered me tea, Korean style. This was proper slowness - the careful preparation and personal selection of teabowls, pouring bowls and teapots, each very different according to the feel of the gallery and taste of the owner. One drinks three times from the bowl and it is a leisurely activity. I very much liked the way in which the objects chosen and used - all very considered - are mutually enhanced by their contents - it is a total and complete experience. It is also interesting to see contemporary ceramics stimulating this tradition - indeed there is a range of materials and disciplines represented - wood, lacquerware, ceramics and sometimes glass. The artist who runs the Tongin gallery who exhibited at Origin had this wonderful way (to me) of preparing the tea, which is very much a unconscious form of performance - with dextrous and fluid movements that were very natural. The table and space that it was served in was surrounded by collections of objects and things that she had made or inspire her.
My sense of this experience was reinforced through a wonderful book on tea given to me by the owner of the first gallery (one of my main experiences of Korea is the considerable kindness and generosity of people) which very much talks about ideas around slowness and the ritual of tea as a counterpoint to this. The book is also illustrated with the work of the main ceramicist exhibited in the gallery, whose work I photographed.
I later went to a beautiful tearoom in one of the old courtyard houses - a hanok - overlooking the mountains which edge Seoul. The owner proudly shows his collection of tea bowls and teawares in recessed shelving and there is something about this absolutely love and reverence for ceramics which would be rare in the UK but feels very natural in this environment, although it would be interesting to see how younger people respond considering this is one of the most wired nations on earth, and also given that coffee houses are all the rage. However through the sort of work that I have seen in Seoul, there has been a clearer consensus on common aesthetics which before then had been difficult to comprehend - certainly in the absence to me of any real design in terms of architecture or material goods - although in Seoul people are very fashionable and well dressed.
Through the guidebook I am staying in one of the oldest parts of the city, which also by chance for me is a short walk to Insadong. The guesthouse is an old house c. late 1900's, where much of the historic city generally has been destroyed by fire, development and war. This has been a wonderful experience and I shall be sad to leave it.
There are probably more craft galleries that one could see, but it is difficult to find information about them, and they are not always easy to find, if at all. They also typify the kind of research that Heather Rigg and I did for the international symposium this year, in that they only show Korean work and I'm unsure as to anywhere that sells Western work. The market for contemporary craft is small in Korea and the vast number of ceramics villages supply endless more traditional pieces which tends to undermine demand for new work. It was interesting thus to visit the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, which is rather like the Prada of art galleries - absolutely beautiful, very reverention, acres of black and no postcards - one building of which is devoted to historic applied arts - ceramics, metalware, scroll painting - the counterbalance of the other building, designed by Jean Nouvel, with contemporary fine art, as if Korean applied art ended in the eighteenth century.
I will be adding photos to add more sense to this writing when I return - I gave up on working out how to do it....
Andy
Sunday, 21 October 2007
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Friday 20th October
I have just spent my final morning here in Cheongju and have been back to the biennial, whereby now some of the staff recognise me and I have had my photo taken a few times...I discovered yesterday there are catalogues of the various sections and I returned with enough money today to puchase them. The catalogues include short biographic details on the artists which is a huge help and of course photos of the work.
The exhibition main site has two main pavilions with the themes 'crafts a mode of life' and 'in search of lost values', the former exploring the role of crafts in imparting and shaping cultural values and the latter its connection to lifestyle, although this may all be lost to the vast hordes of school children. The exhibitions mix some small scale historic collections such a Cameroonian bags, Iranian and Pakistani textiles and Korean wooden funerary figures with the contemporary work. Each of these pavilion exhibitions is subdivided into about four thematic sections such as communication, rituals and amusement with between 6 - 10 works in each section, all varying in discipline, materials and concept. In addition there is a pavilion with an exhibition of intangible cultural treasures of which there were only 31 in the whole of Korea in 1964 - they would need the V & A then - and now about three times that - the whole scenario is somewhat strange. Part of this pavilion also contains a small exhibition of Itaian work - a big display of contemporary glass from Murano and then a small selection of three or four Italian makers.
The other site has the international competition. I'm intrigued as to how makers might end up in one site and not another. Roseanne Bartley's partner Vito Bila has work in this section.
I met one of the exhibiting artists today, a maker from Santa Fe who makes book forms relating to journeys and she was giving a talk at lunchtime: there are a number of American artists in the exhibition. I gather that quite a lot of the international museums come to the biennial, although it is completely different to something like Collect, which is more tightly curated and has denser quantities of work. I am also intrigued as to how the big ceramics exhibition works in Korea and whether that has an impact on the representation of ceramics in the Biennial.
My plan tomorrow is to wander around the area Insadong which has many of the small scale galleries and do a couple of the museums on Sunday, especially the Leung Samsung museum which everyone recommends.
Off to hunt the bus and yet more accommodation...
I have just spent my final morning here in Cheongju and have been back to the biennial, whereby now some of the staff recognise me and I have had my photo taken a few times...I discovered yesterday there are catalogues of the various sections and I returned with enough money today to puchase them. The catalogues include short biographic details on the artists which is a huge help and of course photos of the work.
The exhibition main site has two main pavilions with the themes 'crafts a mode of life' and 'in search of lost values', the former exploring the role of crafts in imparting and shaping cultural values and the latter its connection to lifestyle, although this may all be lost to the vast hordes of school children. The exhibitions mix some small scale historic collections such a Cameroonian bags, Iranian and Pakistani textiles and Korean wooden funerary figures with the contemporary work. Each of these pavilion exhibitions is subdivided into about four thematic sections such as communication, rituals and amusement with between 6 - 10 works in each section, all varying in discipline, materials and concept. In addition there is a pavilion with an exhibition of intangible cultural treasures of which there were only 31 in the whole of Korea in 1964 - they would need the V & A then - and now about three times that - the whole scenario is somewhat strange. Part of this pavilion also contains a small exhibition of Itaian work - a big display of contemporary glass from Murano and then a small selection of three or four Italian makers.
The other site has the international competition. I'm intrigued as to how makers might end up in one site and not another. Roseanne Bartley's partner Vito Bila has work in this section.
I met one of the exhibiting artists today, a maker from Santa Fe who makes book forms relating to journeys and she was giving a talk at lunchtime: there are a number of American artists in the exhibition. I gather that quite a lot of the international museums come to the biennial, although it is completely different to something like Collect, which is more tightly curated and has denser quantities of work. I am also intrigued as to how the big ceramics exhibition works in Korea and whether that has an impact on the representation of ceramics in the Biennial.
My plan tomorrow is to wander around the area Insadong which has many of the small scale galleries and do a couple of the museums on Sunday, especially the Leung Samsung museum which everyone recommends.
Off to hunt the bus and yet more accommodation...
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Having just lost the last two blogs we think we have worked out now how to upload them correctly. I am writing this from the Tourist Information, which is at the bus station and not far from my motel - the Shangri-La.... and is rapidly becoming my second home. I came straight to Cheongju from Seoul, having decided to do this sometime flying over China at about five in the morning. All in all it was about twenty hours of travelling from London. I have been extremely fortunate in the friendliness and helpfulness of Koreans without whom I would not have mastered the transport system and now feel more confident in getting about.
I spent all of yesterday at the Biennial which is on two sites and additionally went to the craft museum which is occupied by a textile exhibition curated by Chunghie Lee, who is now back in the US. The whole experience is initially overwhelming - the event is hugely popular with Koreans and visitors range from vast numbers of schoolchildren to lots of business and official delegates, including North Koreans. The main site is like a small NEC and seems to be a legacy from the Olympics. It does all feel very institutional and this creates for me a lot of problems for the exhibits, which struggle to work with the spaces and display. The variety is also something of a shock, although I imagine this also makes it appealing to visitors. There is some work from British makers - Michael Brennand Wood, Takeshi Yasuda, Daniel Fisher, Eleanor Pritchard and Hiroshi Suzuki, who won a prize in the international competition. Unfortunately there is no catalogue and the labels only give the name of the maker, title of work and the material, so it is a bit of a guessing game to know where the makers are from, although I recognise some of the American makers such as Judy Onofrio and there is also a stand from the Canadian crafts federation. We are not allowed to take photographs, but I hope you will see from my successful (xx) uploading, that I have been surreptitiously snapping and intend to do more today.
In many ways the theme of slowness is more represented within the rhetoric than the work, which is interesting it itself and I have been photographing the text panels. It is hard to recognise whether the makers deliberately responded to the general themes or whether the work was selected and the fitted to it. Certainly the British makers and showing their standard work. The theme of slowness sits most closely with a general consensus on the process of making, rather than taking it as a conceptual starting point. The exhibition which is showcased in a pavilion on the theme 'the aesthetics of slowness' is their main tangible cultural treasure showcase showing work from deceased and living national treasures. In this context the aesthetic is not visual but rather about a tradition of making processes, value of traditional skills and forms, and the time that it takes to work yourself up the hierarchial and nuanced structure that it takes for a maker to reach this eminent position. The objects have great symbolic importance in Korean identity and watching television early this morning, I could see some of them - like to beautifully woven horsehair hats - in action. Again the simplest work and the most natural materials is the most successful combination.
The more I see, hear and experience the culture here, the more easy it is to understand the message behind the biennial - it is a culture and nation striving to succeed and pushes itself forward continuously. It communciates a strong belief in the value of its traditions and at the same time tries to connect this to its rapid change - it is interesting to see how this is done on television which is not something we would see in the UK - it is perhaps easier here because it appears a far more homogenous society. This is in a sense why the themes are given with such rhetoric and craft is seen to have such a significant role as a tool for doing this - it is certainly interesting to attend a craft event on this scale with so many government and other officials visiting and for craft to be seen to have this national relevance.
Anyway, I'm off back today to unpick and unpack the exhibition a little more and try and get over my culture shock. The content is very uneven and the mix often very odd, both in the representation of different disciplines - strong in ceramics, glass and certain areas of textiles - and weak in jewellery, metalwork and basketry, but I hope to have more time to reflect on individual work.
Let see if the pictures upload......
I spent all of yesterday at the Biennial which is on two sites and additionally went to the craft museum which is occupied by a textile exhibition curated by Chunghie Lee, who is now back in the US. The whole experience is initially overwhelming - the event is hugely popular with Koreans and visitors range from vast numbers of schoolchildren to lots of business and official delegates, including North Koreans. The main site is like a small NEC and seems to be a legacy from the Olympics. It does all feel very institutional and this creates for me a lot of problems for the exhibits, which struggle to work with the spaces and display. The variety is also something of a shock, although I imagine this also makes it appealing to visitors. There is some work from British makers - Michael Brennand Wood, Takeshi Yasuda, Daniel Fisher, Eleanor Pritchard and Hiroshi Suzuki, who won a prize in the international competition. Unfortunately there is no catalogue and the labels only give the name of the maker, title of work and the material, so it is a bit of a guessing game to know where the makers are from, although I recognise some of the American makers such as Judy Onofrio and there is also a stand from the Canadian crafts federation. We are not allowed to take photographs, but I hope you will see from my successful (xx) uploading, that I have been surreptitiously snapping and intend to do more today.
In many ways the theme of slowness is more represented within the rhetoric than the work, which is interesting it itself and I have been photographing the text panels. It is hard to recognise whether the makers deliberately responded to the general themes or whether the work was selected and the fitted to it. Certainly the British makers and showing their standard work. The theme of slowness sits most closely with a general consensus on the process of making, rather than taking it as a conceptual starting point. The exhibition which is showcased in a pavilion on the theme 'the aesthetics of slowness' is their main tangible cultural treasure showcase showing work from deceased and living national treasures. In this context the aesthetic is not visual but rather about a tradition of making processes, value of traditional skills and forms, and the time that it takes to work yourself up the hierarchial and nuanced structure that it takes for a maker to reach this eminent position. The objects have great symbolic importance in Korean identity and watching television early this morning, I could see some of them - like to beautifully woven horsehair hats - in action. Again the simplest work and the most natural materials is the most successful combination.
The more I see, hear and experience the culture here, the more easy it is to understand the message behind the biennial - it is a culture and nation striving to succeed and pushes itself forward continuously. It communciates a strong belief in the value of its traditions and at the same time tries to connect this to its rapid change - it is interesting to see how this is done on television which is not something we would see in the UK - it is perhaps easier here because it appears a far more homogenous society. This is in a sense why the themes are given with such rhetoric and craft is seen to have such a significant role as a tool for doing this - it is certainly interesting to attend a craft event on this scale with so many government and other officials visiting and for craft to be seen to have this national relevance.
Anyway, I'm off back today to unpick and unpack the exhibition a little more and try and get over my culture shock. The content is very uneven and the mix often very odd, both in the representation of different disciplines - strong in ceramics, glass and certain areas of textiles - and weak in jewellery, metalwork and basketry, but I hope to have more time to reflect on individual work.
Let see if the pictures upload......
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Wednesday 17th October
Finally, I arrive in Cheongju and am off to the Arts Centre this morning. I had hoped to find an internet cafe but struggled yesterday evening to find one, despite the promises of the guidebook. So this morning I set out to find the tourist information centre and they have access here - although all the instructions on the screen and the interface is in Korea. It took about twenty hours of travelling to get here from the UK but really comfortable and smooth flights from Air France. They have a great and very French screen introduction where impossibly good looking flight attendances swish into action as if on a catwalk and look after perfect nuclear families on their travels. Clearly cultural diversity has not reached their employment practices except I suspect for the baggage handlers.
From an initial glance Korean cities feel very new - I've not seen a building older than 50 years and there is much building work happening. I'm looking forward to seeing more today and getting a wider perspective. It has its very challenging moments, not understanding the language, but I have been generally fortunate in that people have been friendly and helpful when I've stood in front of ticket machines looking nonplussed. Their are many English people who teach here, but it appears a very homogeonous society and I have only seen one person from another country, although when I return to Seoul Insadong is a popular area. The choice of food here is fantastic with many of the covered markets and streets having small food stalls and a huge vareity of cafes and restaurants and I ate traditional noodle broth last night with kimchi, the pickled cabbage - after much complicated pointed and communication with very patient waitresses.
A proper update tomorrow -I'm hugely relieved to find access here at the tourist information and its close to the bus station and not far from my motel - the Shangri-La, which I chose entirely on the basis of its name....
Andy
From an initial glance Korean cities feel very new - I've not seen a building older than 50 years and there is much building work happening. I'm looking forward to seeing more today and getting a wider perspective. It has its very challenging moments, not understanding the language, but I have been generally fortunate in that people have been friendly and helpful when I've stood in front of ticket machines looking nonplussed. Their are many English people who teach here, but it appears a very homogeonous society and I have only seen one person from another country, although when I return to Seoul Insadong is a popular area. The choice of food here is fantastic with many of the covered markets and streets having small food stalls and a huge vareity of cafes and restaurants and I ate traditional noodle broth last night with kimchi, the pickled cabbage - after much complicated pointed and communication with very patient waitresses.
A proper update tomorrow -I'm hugely relieved to find access here at the tourist information and its close to the bus station and not far from my motel - the Shangri-La, which I chose entirely on the basis of its name....
Andy
Friday, 12 October 2007
This blog will be an online diary of my proposed tripto South Korea to visit the International Craft Biennial which is held in the city of Cheongju. This is the fifth biennial that the country has held and is a showcase for contemporary Korean craft as well as exhibiting work from international visitors. You can visit their website on http://www.okcj.org/.
Being a busy period at work - we have a stand at the Crafts Council's London Craft Fair, Origin - I've not got much beyond booking the flight as the process of extracting any information for visitors from the website and any contacts has been somewhat frustrating. However, at this year's Origin there have been four Korean exhibitors and it has been interesting to talk to them - the glassmaker Yesung Kim who studied here at the Royal College of Art has been very helpful and I have had recommendations for galleries, museums and interesting areas to visit in Seoul as well. Yesung also has a friend at the Korean Crafts Council so I will also try and meet up with her if there is time - and I manage to find the building!
I am trusting to my guidebook to find somewhere to stay on the first two nights - I feel reassured that the metro and train stations have place names in English although less reassured by the comments that there are few street names or numbers. There is one area where there are traditional houses which you can stay in and are affordable so wish me luck to find these.
The theme of the biennial is 'Deeply and Slowly' which is something of an unintentional double-entendre but I am sure will be interpreted with serious intent. I shall expect to battle against hordes of school children - which Julian Stair warned me and I look forward to finding some new makers for future programming for ourselves and to share with others.
If you are in London, the Korean potter Hyejeong Kim has an exhibition at the Craft Potters Association and from the pieces that I saw during installation, it promises to be really strong. It runs until the 20th October.
I can also thank the Arts Council who have awarded me a grant towards the visit. I plan to add photographs to this site so that you can see the exhibition and interesting work and for anyone in the West Midlands, give a future presentation for the Designer Maker West Midlands Forum. You can also email me at andynhorn@hotmail.com.
Hopefully my next update will be from Seoul - I will arrive there on Tuesday and depart the following Monday morning. Wish me a safe flight!
Andy
posted Friday 12th October
Being a busy period at work - we have a stand at the Crafts Council's London Craft Fair, Origin - I've not got much beyond booking the flight as the process of extracting any information for visitors from the website and any contacts has been somewhat frustrating. However, at this year's Origin there have been four Korean exhibitors and it has been interesting to talk to them - the glassmaker Yesung Kim who studied here at the Royal College of Art has been very helpful and I have had recommendations for galleries, museums and interesting areas to visit in Seoul as well. Yesung also has a friend at the Korean Crafts Council so I will also try and meet up with her if there is time - and I manage to find the building!
I am trusting to my guidebook to find somewhere to stay on the first two nights - I feel reassured that the metro and train stations have place names in English although less reassured by the comments that there are few street names or numbers. There is one area where there are traditional houses which you can stay in and are affordable so wish me luck to find these.
The theme of the biennial is 'Deeply and Slowly' which is something of an unintentional double-entendre but I am sure will be interpreted with serious intent. I shall expect to battle against hordes of school children - which Julian Stair warned me and I look forward to finding some new makers for future programming for ourselves and to share with others.
If you are in London, the Korean potter Hyejeong Kim has an exhibition at the Craft Potters Association and from the pieces that I saw during installation, it promises to be really strong. It runs until the 20th October.
I can also thank the Arts Council who have awarded me a grant towards the visit. I plan to add photographs to this site so that you can see the exhibition and interesting work and for anyone in the West Midlands, give a future presentation for the Designer Maker West Midlands Forum. You can also email me at andynhorn@hotmail.com.
Hopefully my next update will be from Seoul - I will arrive there on Tuesday and depart the following Monday morning. Wish me a safe flight!
Andy
posted Friday 12th October
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