Foreign artists depict Korea

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Ease your
conscience,
one drink
at a time
If you’re like me, you’re
touched by the generosity people all over the world have
exhibited in the wake of the
Dec. 26 tsunamis.
You’re
pleased to see that donations
have been robust — Koreans
have contributed more than $50
million, according to a recent
report by KBS.
But you’re also feeling a tad
guilty, because you haven’t
donated anything yourself.
Your excuse is that you just
don’t know who to give the
money to, or how.
Well, you can quit with the
excuses, because tonight you’ll
have a chance to give easily and
painlessly. The good folks at
Bar Nana are hosting a benefit
party, organized by a Canadian
who teaches English here, and
your 20,000 won ($19) cover
donation will go straight to
CARE Canada, which is actively conducting relief work in
Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Tonight’s party will feature
DJs and a few live music acts
playing the sorts of groovy
music you usually get at Nana —
say, downtempo funk or reggae
dub. Some of the performers
agreed to cancel paying gigs (it
is Friday night, note) to donate
their efforts to the party, says the
organizer, Laura Parker-Jervis.
Ms. Parker-Jervis, 26, from
Vancouver, has a special affinity
for Sri Lanka: Her boyfriend,
Nimal Wijayana-yake, is Sri
Lankan-Canadian, and the two
spent a few months in the island
nation a year ago.
“When I first saw the news,
all I could think about were the
many wonderful people we met
there while we traveled along
the southwest coast, like the
fishermen,” Ms. Parker-Jervis
said. “I felt like I had to do all I
could to help.”
Also doing all they can to
help are several Itaewon restaurants and bars, which have
chipped in with gift certificates
for a raffle. They include Thai
Orchid, Ho Lee Chow, La
Cigale, La Tavola, Bangkok,
Moghul, Taco and Gecko’s.
Thai Orchid deserves a special shout-out. “We went there
and asked if they would like to
donate a gift certificate, one
worth, say, 50,000 won,” Ms.
Parker-Jervis says. “But the
owner thought for a moment,
then said that he would give
three 100,000-won certificates.”
Your donation will get you
two chances at the prizes, which
are mostly free dinners but also
include sweatshirts and other
treats. You can also buy more
raffle tickets, at 2,000 won each
or six for 10,000 won, once
you’re inside. So depending on
your luck, you could ease your
conscience and still come out
ahead. (Also, Bar Nana’s contributing 2,000 won for each
vodka, gin and rum drink sold.)
Either way, all the money
will go to CARE Canada, which
Ms. Parker-Jervis chose after
researching various NGOs. You
can see information on the work
CARE is doing by visiting its
Web site, care.ca. If you’re incurably suspicious, like me, you
can leave your email address,
and Ms. Parker-Jervis will later
forward you the receipt from
CARE.
The party starts at 9 p.m.
They’re expecting a big turnout,
so don’t wait too long.
[email protected]
K
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JoongAng Daily, Friday, January 14, 2005
Foreign
artists
depict
Korea
By Park Soo-mee
Staff Writer
Contemporary art in Korea was undoubtedly influenced by the traditions of Western art.
But what about contemporary Western artists?
Have they been influenced at all by Eastern
methodologies?
Twelve artists from abroad, whose works
have been deeply influenced by their time in
Korea, have put together an exhibition at
Gwanhun Gallery in Insa-dong, which opened
yesterday.
“Korean-Eyesed” is an exhibition featuring
the paintings and sculptures of these foreign
artists, whose works reflect their views of the
country. Each artist explores notions of Korean
identity and artistic or social experiences in
Korea based on what they see as the essence of
Korean colors, symbols, philosophies or
moods.
The sense of place and the uniqueness of the
cultural surroundings are focused on by many
of the expatriate artists. Still life paintings by
Australian artist Maryanne Wick depict Korean
pottery positioned in surreal and unusual ways.
The paintings aim to reflect the mood, texture
and the familiarity of Seoul’s urban landscape.
In a series dubbed “The Blue Roof,” inspired by
Picasso’s painting “Roofs of Barcelona,” the
artist depicts a scene near the Blue House.
The same artist also presents “My Private
Itaewon,” a series of snapshots of everyday life
in the neighborhood.
A set of mogu sculptures by Yesim Sendil
are made out of carved wood, painted brightly
in primary and secondary colors. The imagery,
Above: “Aboji” by Yvonne Boag.
Right: “Paralleles” by Claire Wastiaux.
influenced by the artist’s visits to antique stores
in Insa-dong, juxtaposes the artist’s personal
impressions of the objects with the history and
tradition of funeral rituals in Korea.
“The Monk Metaphors,” by Claire Wastiaux, is an installation of images concerning the
artist’s personal ruminations on the influence
of “the Asian sense of beauty.” The artist’s connection to her new cultural surroundings is
reflected in her use of bold colors.
Others deal with more explicit cultural differences. Yvonne Boag draws on her experience
of visiting a dog market in Seoul. Jonathan
Barnbrook, a graphic designer, replaces the
image of Colonel Sanders in a KFC ad with the
face of Kim Jong-il; he considers them “two
scary individuals whose faces appear everywhere and who both have an amazing amount
of power.”
Elodie Dornand, a French artist, recreates
the confusion he felt during his stay in Korea —
with its atmosphere blending modern inventions and ancestral traditions — through drawings of his surroundings done on a monumental scale.
Junichiro Ishii from Japan has created a
sound installation in which the artist tests how
mood affects space, in an attempt to demonstrate what constitutes the powerful Korean
atmosphere.
[email protected]
Guided tours (lectures) will be held in Korean
and English on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Special tours for small groups in Korean, English
or French can be arranged. Contact Benjamin
Joinau at 011-9905-0696. The exhibition runs
through Jan. 25.
Retrospective
showcases
Nakahira’s style
By Chun Su-jin
DJ Krush to spin a moody mix
By Joe Yonghee Staff Writer
There’s a scene in
“Scratch,” Doug Pray’s documentary on turntablism, in
which Japan’s DJ Krush
spins a moody, atmospheric
mix for an audience in San
Francisco.
The documentary focuses on the evolution of
scratching, mainly in the
United States, with appearances by pioneers like Bambaataa, Mix Master Mike (of
the Beastie Boys), DJ QBert, Shadow and Rob
Swift. The interlude with
DJ Krush — who appears in
Seoul next weekend — is
pretty much the only time
an artist based outside
America appears, which
attests to Krush’s international recognition.
“It is his fondness for
incorporating hard bop,
swing, jazz and hip-hop elements into his music which
have caused him to be
labeled as one of the progenitors of the global hiphop and acid jazz scene,”
writes Spence D in an article
in the magazine The Bomb.
Incidentally, it was
another such documentary
that turned DJ Krush on to
turntables. In the early
1980s in Japan, he happened to see “Wild Style,”
Charles Ahearn’s 1983
docudrama about the legendary graffiti artist Lee
Quinones. By 1987, Krush
had formed Krush Posse,
which went on to become
one of the best hip-hop acts
in Japan.
The group broke up in
late 1992 and Krush went
solo, releasing his first
album, “Krush,” in 1994. In
concerts, playing with live
musicians, he would experiment with beats, ethnic
instruments and samples.
London’s Mo Wax label
released
“Strictly
Turntablized” in 1994 and
“Meiso” in 1996. Following
the release of “Meiso,” in an
interview with “Global
Music Culture,” Krush said,
“Just like rappers, DJs also
have something to say and I
wanted to see how well I
could deliver a message or
an image in my mind just by
sound. As a result of [the
album ‘Meiso’], especially
the track with Shadow, I
now think that such a thing
is definitely possible and I
have now opened new
avenues to explore.”
Subsequent
albums
with Sony continued to
push hip-hop’s boundaries.
“Zen,” his sixth album, won
Best Electronica Album at
the 2002 AIFM Awards in
the United States.
In 2004, he produced the
soundtrack for “Arakimentari,” a documentary on
Japanese
photographer
Araki, and released the
album “Jaku,” a melodic
approach to hip-hop, with
Japanese overtones.
Krush will perform in
Seoul on Jan. 21, at Club
Otwo in Hongdae. The DJ
lineup includes some of
Korea’s best hip-hop DJs,
including Soulscape, KidB,
Murf, Wreckx, Jinmoo and
Hydro.
[email protected]
For more information, visit
the Web site www.clubotwo.com.
Admission is
40,000 won.
Staff Writer
Francois Truffaut, the famous French film
director, started out as a critic, and a hard-toplease critic at that. One day in 1956, he came
upon a Japanese film titled “Kurutta Kajitsu”
(Crazed Fruit), the first film by Ko Nakahira.
Stylish and sharp, the film captured Truffaut’s
heart.
When he debuted as a director himself two
years later, Truffaut didn’t hesitate to acknowledge that Nakahira had influenced his style.
His fellow French New Wave director Jean-Luc
Godard said much the same thing.
Cinephiles in Korea will soon have their
first chance to see this influential film, in a
Nakahira retrospective that starts tomorrow at
Seoul Art Cinema.
Running until Jan. 23, the retrospective
features 12 of the director’s films, “Crazed
Fruit” included.
Filmed in an impressive 17 days, “Crazed
Fruit” depicts a fateful love triangle comprised
of a sexually aggressive young man, his feeble
younger brother and a femme fatale. Filled
with evocative love scenes and speedy and
stylish editing, the film made Nakahira a star
director in Japan.
Nakahira, who was born in 1926 and died
in 1978, made stylish erotic thrillers as well as
action comedies, opening a new era in postwar
Japanese film. He was known as a stylist who
cared less about a story than about how it was
presented.
“Crazed Fruit” will not have English subtitles for the retrospective, but two of his other
films will: “The Flesh Is Weak” (1958) and
“Street Lamp” (1957).
For “The Flesh Is Weak,” based on a novel
in which the heroine meets a tragic end after a
love affair, Nakahira gave the story an interesting twist.
In the film, the heroine is shaken but never collapses, a change that helps makes the story curiously funny as well as dramatic. “Street
Lamp” is a romantic comedy with a sophisticated comedic touch.
The retrospective’s organizers also recommend “Danger Means Money” (1963), about a
struggle between four gangsters and an old
counterfeiter. With its fast-paced editing and
unconventional sense of humor, the film is said
to have maintained its appeal for modern audiences.
A retrospective on the Japanese director Ko
Nakahira, top, presents 12 of his films, including
“The Flesh is Weak.”
“Dorodarakeno Junjo” (Purity Stuck in
Mud, 1963) is a tearjerker about star-crossed
lovers; it was remade in Korea the following
year as “Manbarui Cheongchun” (Barefoot
Youth). The original remains a classic of its
genre in Japan.
Admission to the retrospective is 6,000
won ($6) per screening.
[email protected]
Seoul Art Cinema is best reached from Anguk
station, subway line No. 3, exit 1; walk about 10
minutes in the direction of Art Sonje Center. For
more information, call (02) 720-9782 or visit
www.cinematheque.seoul.kr.
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