2012 asia international fine art exhibition ~ chungju

Or as I now like to think of it, the worst exhibition I have ever been to.

 On the way there, I biked past an intersection with the markings of a previous car/scooter accident. In Korea, they always spray paint around the vehicles (and sometimes people) before moving them which always leaves an unpleasant reminder of past events. It always makes driving/biking in Korea seem even more daunting. And in this case, seem to foreshadow things to come.

 The greeting banner outside of the culture centre declaring the participating countries. I was psyched to see Canada on the list, psyched to see art in Chungju and extra psyched that it was an international exhibition in Chungju!

 Outside the culture center.

 It's right beside this park, which also has some historically dressed statues which creeped me out a bit the first time I stumbled upon it.

And the second venue was this gallery, right across from the park.

So why was it the worst exhibition I've ever been to? Well, I'll start with some good points first...

 When you aren't looking at work close up, it could be any exhibition. A few sculptures in the centre, nothing too controversial. Drawings, paintings and prints hung on the surrounding walls, hung maybe a little too close, but from a distance it could be your typical, safe, public exhibition. Nothing too risque.

Some benches to sit and admire the work. There were even full colour, 100 page, really nice books available with a listing of all the artists and their work. Obviously a lot of care went into promoting this exhibition, and the two ladies manning the exhibition halls were perfectly friendly and nice.

But the art itself once you saw it up close?

 WAS HORRIBLE. Frames were tape over badly cut, styrofoam, matte board, with warped canvas bubbling out.

 I guess at some point they must have run out of black tape because they went all out with green painters' tape to make pseudo frames over the styrofoam matte boards next. But at least it must've been easy to hang since they just stuck pins through the styrofoam.

Some did at least use legit matte board, like this drawing with glitter glue pieces falling off, but it also came with a nice big stain on the side.

But hey, at least the art made by Korean artists was framed properly (I take it the artists did it themselves) but most international art was presented in a way that wouldn't even be passable in the first semester of an art programme. And this was an international exhibition!

But some were ok, like this fire extinguisher, pepper, 2x2=ᄆ installation. At first I thought it was pretty amateurishly presented, but after viewing both exhibition sites, it became pretty impressive, I guess. 

I had been so psyched to see some art in Chungju, in an international exhibition no less. Well, from now on I'll keep my Chungju art expectations close to non-existent and just suck it up and make a trip to Seoul when I want to see some art.

At least I still have the Gwangju biennale to look forward to, I know I won't be let down there.

another week of classes

Another week has gone by at ye olde cow university, where we learn alongside cows while not wearing shirts. Summer semester students are still 100x better than regular semester students. And they proved that this week in gifts.

The haul for the week was a box of Margaret cookies, soy milk and a chocolate bar. The only time I got gifts last semester, were as bribes for better grades... it's been a complete 180.

And we got to learn valuable things, like how to appropriately use the word 'really' from some pictures of a crazed lady that really enjoys knitting. Not that I can complain about the textbooks, I picked them myself.

I also found some cat litter that doubles as cat food. That should really cut down on costs, since pet supplies are so expensive here.

 Enjoyed some mulnaengmyun to combat the rampant humidity. It's finally grown on me after 2+ years of not really caring for it.

Made some curry mung bean  pancakes (kinda like bindaeduk) and ate them with ketchup, which would probably horrify Koreans, but was definitely necessary.

And for the first time I noticed, after a late night walk in 대가미 공원 Daegami park, that it looks like old people are banned. Shame.

food in cambodia

 Morning glory (water spinach or swamp cabbage) and rice.

 Stir fried vegetables with broad noodles.

 Free breakfast that my hotel provided, cheese omelet and bread. 

What also came free with my hotel room, this little newt/lizard guy who seemed to live in my air conditioner and liked to exercise by crawling all over the walls at night.

 Vegetable curry and rice. I didn't really like this too much. it wasn't really that spicy, more sweet than anything because it tasted like they were incredibly liberal with coconut milk when making it.

 Which resulted in a stop by an Indian restaurant later for vegetable korma.

 Pineapple, spinach and black olive pizza.

And my last meal before leaving, Asian salad; lettuce, bean sprouts, pickled radish and some kind of sea vegetable.

Most restaurants were mainly meat based, but there were always a few vegetarian options and they were all more than willing to make something without meat. I didn't really explore Khmer food all that much, instead drinking a lot of iced and bubble tea (something which Korea is lacking in variety of) and just going with a few western foods that I missed.

But at least I got a good amount of Cambodian beers in before I left.

I can't really say that any of them were standouts, but I'd take them over a Hite or Cass any day.

송계계곡 songgye valley

H'or d'oeuvres from an event for foreign workers... maybe. I semi helped make these, but they unfortunately were sandwiched with some tuna. They do look pretty at least.

 One of the 5 or so stop and camp/splash in the river areas along the valley. It was super packed in the afternoon but everyone started packing up and heading out around 6. Pretty fantastic hang out spot, aside from the insane amount of people/traffic around.

 My wonderful flip flop tan lines that I've worked so hard to achieve. They're coming along nicely for it only being July.

 Head towel fashion?

And more head towel fashion, with shorts hiked up for good measure. Everyone went hardcore with the supplies they brought, even though they were only hanging out for the day. Hanging out in the valley is serious business, and I came unprepared. Next time I'll take more supplies and an extra pair of swimming clothes, because no one seemed to be swimming in swimsuits, but rather their clothes. And if the water hadn't been so icy cold I might've done the same because today definitely was hot enough.

cats museum

I decided to make this after reading this post: making spanish tortilla college student style
But instead of making a tortilla, I opted for something similar; a frittata. I used 2 eggs, potatoes, onions, garlic, mushrooms, peppers and cheese. With the cheese it basically ended up looking like an egg pizza. Can't really complain about that.

 Lunch on Friday, bori bibimbap and kalguksu in Seoul, a place I don't go often.

And then the cats museum.

 

Filled with lots of wonderful cat art.

OK, it was really the Trick Art Museum, but I prefer to remember it this way.

And then we went to the 63 building on Yeouido, these are some shots from the aquarium.

 And then there was the wax museum. And a wax museum is pretty pointless without Michael Jackson, who made me feel pretty short, which I am not.

Blurry Frankenstein outside the mini haunted house.

 Innocent teddy bears being assaulted.

 And a horrible Elvis Presley. After the large head sculpture park and this wax museum, I'm starting to get the impression that Koreans don't put that much effort into creating likenesses. But it was a pretty fantastic trip because there's nowhere I like visiting more than cheesy, slightly creepy, tourist traps like these.

first week of summer classes

I've just finished the first week of classes and it's a whole lot different from doing regular semester classes. I don't have the same crazy schedule, my classes are much smaller, and the students are a whole lot better. Or maybe I just think that because of the smaller classes? Either way, it's been pretty nice so far. And the rain has been coming down, which has been helpful in keeping things cool. There also have been a lot of thunder storms, I've experienced more in my 4 months in Chungju, then the entire two years I spent in Daegu. Weird.

And looking at the pictures from my camera, it seems like all I've done this past week is go for makgeolli, dongdongju and bibimnaengmyun...

 Makgeolli and tofu kimchi. We were sitting there and my friend hadn't touched the tofu kimchi yet, I asked why she wasn't eating and her response was: "You didn't take a picture yet." Yeah, taking a picture of all meals/snacks has become a ritual that everyone I hang out with is aware of...

 Buchujeon and dongdongju.

And bibimnaengmyun on a hot day. I've been giving the (usually bad) restaurant by my apartment a couple more tries, but when there's a better and cheaper restaurant two blocks away, this only happens when I get really lazy.

Some sidewalk advice at my university:

Understand

Your mother

Immediately.

Good advice. And today I had a final talk/advice giving session with one of my students from first semester before her impending one year trip to Canada. They grow up so fast. These past four months have felt a whole lot more like an entire year.

the killing fields

I remember my first year in Korea, I went to the Gwangju biennale, 10,000 lives. Biennale is Italian for two years. It's essentially an international contemporary art festival held every two years in Gwangju, "the city of art and culture." It was amazing and I plan on going again this year, the theme being Round Table, it's happening September 7th - November 11th 2012.

I remember when I walked into the first exhibition room, there was a performance/installation for the Gwangju massacre and it set an ominous tone for the rest of the exhibition. Not everything was dark, there were some playful works, but there were some disturbing parts as well that came with warnings.

I also remember, somewhere around halfway through the exhibition, I walked into an exhibition space filled with portraits. Someone was reading the info to my right, so I decided to go left and look at the photographs before I read the info. All of the pictures were in black and white and looked like mugshots, some people looked angry, or sad and had tears in their eyes, maybe one or two out of all of them were smiling. I remember thinking it seemed like they were about to be killed or at the very least, something bad was going to happen. And once I made it all the way around the room, back to entrance and the exhibit info, I was right, they were portraits from the Killing Fields. There's a lot of debate about whether photographs like these are art (they weren't made for that purpose) and I have a lot of my own personal doubts and grievances with photography as an art form in certain circumstances because it has quite a tendency to exploit those being photographed. And I've spent a lot of time thinking about this since my first photography class back during my student days.

But moving on, while I was in Cambodia, I visited the Killing Fields, along with the genocide museum while in Phnom Penh and delved a bit more into the dark history of Cambodia underneath the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. My tuktuk driver took me out to the Killing Fields, early in the morning and I spent around an hour touring the site while listening to an audio tour. Entrance cost $5.

Some chickens wandering the site. Many people are buried here, and roofs have been set up above the main mass graves to protect them somewhat from the elements. The audio pretty quickly warned that bone fragments and fabric still resurface, especially after heavy rain, so be careful where you step and leave any remains to be tended to by the caretakers.

The only area adorned with bracelets by visitors. This is where babies and young children were taken by the legs and beat against the tree until dead and then buried in a pit a couple of feet away. The Khmer Rouge didn't have a lot of money to use to murder their victims so often resorted to sheer brutality. And they strongly believed that to completely eradicate your enemy it was necessary to eliminate them right down to their roots, sparing no one.

The monument to the victims, the first thing you see when you enter and the last stop before you go.

Inside the monument skulls and bones are stored from the victims of the massacre. Recent bone fragments that are unearthed are kept in a smaller case along the path and there's also a small storage area for fabric and clothes. Definitely a harrowing experience.

Another strange aspect to the Killing Fields is how much of a tourist attraction it has become, in fact one of the main tourist attractions of Phnom Penh. I couldn't walk anywhere without having tuktuk drivers asking me if I wanted to go on a tour to the Killing Fields. And much like viewing portraits from people murdered here, I couldn't help but feel a bit conflicted by the experience. But it was an experience I did participate in, and pay for, just like viewing the portraits at the Gwangju biennale.