Tim Burton's world comes to Korea

“Blue Girl with Wine” by Tim Burton Courtesy of the artist

By Kwon Mee-yoo

If you are looking for whimsical yet dark works of art, American film director Tim Burton’s fantastic world is on exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) in central Seoul. Some 860 of Burton’s works from his earliest small sketches to those from his most recent movie “Frankenweenie” are on display for both children and adults.

His pieces are dark, disturbing and mysterious, yet interesting and compelling. Films such as “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), “The Nightmare before Christmas” (1993) and “Alice in Wonderland” (2010) have helped Burton become a world-renowned movie director with a distinguishing artistic world ranging from reality to animation.

The exhibit, debuting at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 2009, has been on tour since then via Melbourne, Toronto, Los Angeles and Paris. With Seoul being the only Asian destination and the final stop, Burton said that it makes it “extra special” at a press conference in Seoul earlier this month.

Having an exhibition at an art museum was a big surprise for Burton at first as he didn’t expect such attention as a movie director. The items on show are “excavated” from Burton’s house, drawers and boxes he never knew existed. He referred to the MoMA curators, including Ron Magliozzi who organized the exhibit, as archaeologists, as they found numerous sketches and other material by Burton and gave them structure for a gallery show.

The director’s inspiration comes from thinking like a child. “When you are young, you see things in a new way. I think, as you get older, it’s always important to try to see things from a different perspective,” Burton said.

He added the exhibition grew and changed along its journey and the Seoul show feels authentic to SeMA and the capital of Korea.

In light of the Christmas season, it is showing pieces from his childhood to the present day. The art museum has been turned into a playful world dedicated to the quirky director. A sad-looking “Balloon Boy” greets visitors at the lobby and a long red tongue coils around the staircase, which leads to a hall on the second floor. Visitors walk into Burton’s fanged “Monster Mouth,” created exclusively for this event, to see how the director developed his “Burtonesque” style.

There are three different sections. The first, “Surviving Burbank,” displays Burton’s unique creations as a child growing up in Burbank, Calif. from 1958 to 1976 such as “The Island of Dr. Agor” (1971) and “Houdini: The Untold Story” (1971).

The second part, “Beautifying Burbank,” portrays Burton’s life and work from 1977 to 1984. It is filled with creations from his time with Cal Art and Walt Disney such as his 1984 film “Frankenweenie” which was recreated as an animation in 2012 and his “Cal Arts Sketchbook Collection.”

Lots of sketches, some of them drawn on napkins, are on display, hinting at how much the director is immersed in his own world.

The final section, “Beyond Burbank,” contains Burton’s most famous pieces from 1985 to the present day. Drawings such as “The Melancholy Death of the Oyster Boy and Other Stories” (1988) and “Blue Girl with Wine” (1997) accompany his famous films such as ” (1988), “Batman” (1989), and “The Nightmare before Christmas” (1993).

A replica of the “scissorhands” used in “Edward Scissorhands,” 26 head models for Jack from “The Nightmare before Christmas” with different expressions and a life-size model of an Oompa-Loompa from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” are also on view.

Visitors can also watch short and feature films of the director at screening rooms including rare ones such as “Hansel and Gretel,” an Asia-themed adaptation of the fairy tale Burton made while he worked for the Disney Channel in 1983. The film was screened only once and then shelved but MoMA rediscovered the film for this exhibit.

Sponsored by Hyundai Card, the Tim Burton exhibit in Seoul runs through April 14. Entry costs from 8,000 to 12,000 won and is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends and holidays.

For more information, visit www.superseries.kr or call (02) 325-1077.

The Korea Times intern Destinee Harrison contributed to this story.