street art and loveland in jeju

I've only lived in Chungju, and formerly Daegu, and neither really has that much art, or much of an artistic vibe. So it's always nice visiting someplace that does. If you go to Jeju, naturally you're going to see lots of these guys all over the place, 돌 하르방 dol haruebang / stone grandfathers, protecting the island.

Ranging in all different kinds of sizes, but the main ones are usually the size of the stone guy in the top right.

But what I appreciated most of all, were all of the murals everywhere. Here's a scuba diver with an unopened can and bottle of beer.

Really awesome mural, incorporating some recycled/found object sculpture people atop a scene of kids playing. Perfect combination.

A cartoon 해녀/ haenyeo / sea woman. There was actually a whole section of murals on the female divers, former bread winners of Jeju, but it was too dark to get any decent shots. Since I didn't make it out to the museum this was all I got. It seems like there's a museum for everything out in Jeju, so you either need a lot of time, or go for what you can.

And a great big angry face sculpture out on 'Mysterious Road'. We have something similar in Canada, called Magnetic Hill. If you put your car in neutral while facing downhill, your car will roll uphill instead. It's essentially an optical illusion. I was pretty nonplussed when I experienced it out in New Brunswick and the Jeju experience didn't really change that.

Mysterious Road also featured Loveland. A love themed park filled with sculptures made by graduates of Hongik University in Seoul. I wasn't really interested in going, but since it promised lots of decent quality sculptures, and probable weirdness, I opted in. And it was what was to be expected, lots of sculptures having sex, a sex toy museum/display and shop, little dioramas of random scenes, etc. It looked like each artist made a few sculptures based on a chosen sex theme. Some stuff was a little sketchy, but that's to be expected at any love themed park anywhere. It was worth the 8,000 won admission, but it is what it is, another tourist trap.