The Korea Times

Allure of dots

Yayoi Kusama, "With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever" / Courtesy of Seoul Arts CenterYayoi Kusama's exhibition held through June 15By Kwon Mee-yooColorful dots cover the entrance to Hangaram Art Museum in Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul, for "A Dream I Dreamed," a retrospective of Yayoi Kusama. The 85-year-old artist is known for her trademark polka dots and the dotty decoration is a tribute to her.Kusama's "A Dream I Dreamed," is a traveling exhibition organized by Daegu Art Museum touring Daegu, Shanghai, Macau, Taipei and New Delhi through 2015. Seoul is the third destination of the Kusama retrospective featuring over 120 works including her paintings, sculptures, videos and installations.The Japanese artist suffered hallucinations and obsessive thoughts since childhood. Her hallucinations included endless polka dots on her body and Kusama sublimated her psychical disorder to the state of fine art. She still commutes to her studio from a psychiatric hospital, but such obsession could not stop her pursuing her world of artThree of her famous "Pumpkin" sculptures filled

May 6, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Lifestyle

New dimensions in media art

Jesper Just’s “This Nameless Spectacle” (2011) will be on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul through Aug. 3. / Courtesy of MMCABy Kwon Mee-yooSince its opening last year, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul (MMCA Seoul) has been aggressive in media art exhibitions, perhaps in an eagerness to tout its high-tech display spaces.Among the museum’s latest items are the works of Danish artist Jesper Just, whose portrayal of female desire is delicate and explosive, strange and beautiful.In his works submitted for the "This is a Landscape of Desire’’ exhibition, Just constantly makes an effort to get viewers engaged in his creations."The Nameless Spectacle’’ has viewers stand between two screens ― one showing a disabled woman in a wheel chair and the other showing a man who seems to be pursuing the woman. The idea is to make viewers imagine as if they are caught between the two, which according to Just makes the audiovisual experience feel more ``physical.’’"This is a Landsc

Apr 30, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Arts & Theater

Contemporary Shakespeare

David Ricardo-Pearce plays Oberon in Handspring Puppet Company's "A Midsummer Night's Dream.” / Courtesy of National Theater of KoreaPuppeteers put life into modern interpretation of 'Midsummer'By Kwon Mee-yooA new production of William Shakespeare's playful comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" visited Korea with a bunch of puppets last week.The play, produced by England's Bristol Old Vic in association with South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, visited Korea for a sell-out run from Friday to Saturday at Daloreum Theater of the National Theater of Korea (NTOK). Seoul was the last destination of the company's Midsummer tour, which began at London's Barbican in February and the day of performance in Korean coincided with Shakespeare's 450th anniversary of his birth.Directed by Tom Morris, the play revolves around adventures of Theseus, Duke of Athens; his fiancee Hippolyta; four Athenian lovers; six amateur actors and fairies in a magical forest. Love triangle of Hermia (Akiya Henry), Lysander (Alex Felton), Helena (Rebecca Pownall) and Demetrius (Kyle Lima) gets even mor

Apr 28, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Lifestyle

Reversing `Faust'

Jeun Mi-do performs as Mephisto in “Mephisto” at the Seoul Arts Center (SAC) in southern Seoul.  / Korea TimesBy Kwon Mee-yoo "Faust,’’ considered one of the pillars of Western literature, is a play about a man who sells his soul for worldly gains.  Korean director Seo Jae-hyeong twists Goethe’s masterpiece by highlighting the demon’s point of view."Mephisto,’’ which runs through Friday at the Seoul Arts Center (SAC) in southern Seoul, testifies to Seo’s talent for stunning visuals, although his extravaganza could have benefited from a more coherent text.In most stage productions of Faust, Mephisto, the demon, has been played by male actors for masculine presence. Seo went with a different direction and cast actress Jeun Mi-do as his Mephisto.Jeun is brilliant as the demon, a role she delivers with a dark intensity of feeling and seductiveness, giving the play an intellectual depth it probably does not deserve. The range she shows here was unexpected ― Jeun was merely adequate as Lotte in "Werther&rsq

Apr 16, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Lifestyle

Extracting extraordinary from mundane

“Viaje al Centro de la Tierra: Penetrable” (Journey to the Center of the Earth: Penetrable)Damian OrtegaBy Kwon Mee-yooDamian Ortega’s artwork ― made of rocks, scrap metal and pieces of glass ― has made the Kukje Gallery in Seoul look like a bizarro natural history museum.``Reading Landscapes,’’ which opened last week, is the Mexican artist’s first solo exhibit in Korea and highlights his efforts to explore the artistic possibilities of mundane materials and deliver social commentary through them.Entering the gallery, visitors first face a huge installation of stones and other objects hanging from wires, combining to form the shape of a planet split in half.Ortega explains the work, “Viaje al Centro de la Tierra: Penetrable” (Journey to the Center of the Earth: Penetrable), is an expression of how the public consumes art in the 21st century. Contemporary art is evolving in a way where the boundaries between the artist and viewers are blurring, he claims, and this reverses the relationship between what is seen and who sees it.&

Apr 15, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Travel & Food

Rewiring Seoul's urban heart

The last column of the Ahyeon Overpass is lifted by a crane on March 26. The take-down of the 46-year-old overpass was completed in about 45 days, starting from Feb. 9. / Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chulBy Kwon Mee-yooSeoul has just demolished its oldest elevated road and for some, it was hard not to find symbolism in this.When completed in 1968, the one-kilometer long Ahyeon Overpass was touted as a feature vital to the city’s future, a facilitator of a larger cities, more cars and more bustling commercial activity.The folly of placing major roads through the heart of cities is widely understood in 2014 and Seoul City officials were eager to tear down the road to make room for 21st century urban planning.The four-lane overpass, which stretched from Junglim-dong to Ahyeon-dong, was a route for 80,000 vehicles per day. It was the first overpass constructed in Korea, aimed at easing traffic congestion from the city’s center to the fast growing districts of Mapo, Chungjeongno and Sinchon.Two people look at the construction site over Ahyeon Overpass when the elevated driv

Apr 10, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Arts & Theater

Poignant resistance

“Rapture” by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat will be displayed at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Seoul through July 13. / Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone GalleryIranian artist captures stunning images of female suppressionShirin NeshatBy Kwon Mee-yooA Muslim woman, much of her head wrapped in a hijab, calmly gazes into the camera, her face overlaid with Iranian poems written in elegant calligraphy. This is a surreal and disturbing image even before we account for the gun pointed at her face.The photo is one of the many works of Iranian artist Shirin Neshat now on display at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Seoul. Her pieces represent the first part of the museum’s “MMCA — Asia Project” aimed at highlighting the works of contemporary Asian artists.Neshat’s strength is her ability to bring a personal perspective to the universal theme that is female suppression. Her works are highly representative of the realities in Iran, where women continue to feel sidelined from society and culture. Her works are

Apr 4, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Lifestyle

'Ajeossi,' K-pop and media art

Jung Yeon-doo’s “Crayon Pop Special” will be on display at Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art, in downtown Seoul through June 8. / Courtesy of PlateauArtist Jung Yeon-dooBy Kwon Mee-yooFor his latest work, media artist Jung Yeon-doo found inspiration in a subject some might feel is cringe-worthy: middle-aged men obsessed with girl pop bands.If you’re not familiar with this demographic, you need look no further than the centerpiece of Jung’s "Spectacle in Perspective’’ exhibition at Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art in downtown Seoul.The piece comprises of an empty stage, bereft of any of the gyrating that’s become K-pop’s calling card. But there are plenty of blinding lighting effects, blaring music and a screen that shows overjoyed men ― many of them looking to be on the wrong side of 40 ― screaming in support of Crayon Pop, the goofy girl group.The work, titled "Crayon Pop Special,’’ is less about the five youthful singers than their older male fans who call themselves "popjeossi,’’ Jung said."As a mid

Mar 26, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Lifestyle

'Wicked' composer impressed with local success

Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist of the musical “Wicked”By Kwon Mee-yooStephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist behind the hit musical “Wicked,” said he was delighted to see the show’s continuing success in Korea, where it opened in November.After arriving in Seoul Saturday, Schwartz used the weekend to see the local performance of Wicked, which features Oak Joo-hyun and Park Hye-na in the roles of Elphaba and Jeong Seon-ah, and Kim Bo-kyung who plays Glinda. He said he came away impressed.“The show here is in very good shape even a few months after opening, and I didn’t have many notes (to give to the actors). I got to see both of the casts, and they were different but very good,” Schwartz, 66, said in an interview on Monday.“I also got to meet and work with (Kim) Sun-young, who will be joining the show in May (in the role of Elphaba). We sang through some of the songs together, and I think she will be great in the show.”One of the most influential songwriters in the entertainment world, Schwartz wrote the music f

Mar 25, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

'Wicked' composer impressed with local success

Arts & Theater

Supernatural, but not

Meet the technical wizard behind the imaginative 'Ghost: the Musical'By Kwon Mee-yooWhile there have been a slew of musicals based on movies, “Ghost the Musical” is a rare work that convincingly feels like a film.While Ghost, currently playing at the D-Cube Arts center in western Seoul, has been garnering mixed reviews from critics, not many will argue that the musical represents a triumph in the field of live special effects.The famous scenes from the movie are not compromised and sometimes even improved upon. Souls drift away from the bodies of those killed. People pass through doors. A handwritten letter folds itself and floats away from hands, a magical scene created for the musical.‘Ghost’: a high-tech treat for the eyesActors’ costumes are hung on racks backstage. / Courtesy of Seensee CompanyThe local staging of Ghost features top Korean stars such as actor Joo Won as Sam and sexy K-pop songstress Ivy as Molly. But it can be argued that the real star of the show is Yoo Seok-yong, Ghost’s technical manager who controls the manipulative s

Mar 20, 2014By Kwon Mee-yoo

Kwon Mee-yoo

Read more

Allure of dots

New dimensions in media art

Contemporary Shakespeare

Reversing `Faust'

Extracting extraordinary from mundane

Rewiring Seoul's urban heart

Poignant resistance

'Ajeossi,' K-pop and media art

'Wicked' composer impressed with local success

Supernatural, but not

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