`Childrens Songs Are Inspiring

By Kim Se-jeong

Staff Reporter

When Daniel Briceno read the Spanish translation of a famous Korean lullaby, "Seomjib Agi," he was rather struck.

Reading the lyrics about a baby sleeping with the sound of ocean waves in the background, while his mother was gone gathering oysters, he asked a few questions which might seem unthinkable to Koreans: Why does she have to leave her baby alone? How long has she been gone? Isn't he in danger? Is he going to be ok?

Later, Briceno molded a sleeping baby out of clay whose face held Briceno's concern.

The baby face expresses pain rather than peace. Briceno said the child might look dead, which is possible, according to him, for a baby left alone.

Briceno, an artist in Venezuela, who now is a cultural offier at the Venezuelan Embassy in Seoul, has sculpted for the past nine months in Korea during his spare time. And two works were on display until last week at the Bandi Gallery in Samcheong-dong, Seoul.