British artists bring history, culture to Korea

Grayson Perry's tapestry "Comfort Blanket" / Courtesy of British Council and SeMA

By Kwon Mee-yoo

The United Kingdom and Korea reaffirm their ties by strengthening cultural exchanges during the U.K.-South Korea Season 2017-18, themed "Creative Futures."

Throughout the event, the two countries share emerging artists and develop new audiences for art and creative industries through exhibitions, performances, film screenings and more.

The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) hosts "The Art of Dissonance" in partnership with the British Council Korea. The exhibit features some 26 works of 16 British contemporary artists from the British Council's collection.

Martin Fryer, director at the British Council Korea, said this exhibit is one of the highlights of the season, covering art, science and education.

"The exhibit shows an up-to-date look of the U.K. to public in Seoul. It includes social and political discussions and represents living and working in the U.K. in the form of art," Fryer said. "This is the largest group survey of the visual art scene of the U.K. in Korea in a few years and showcases a strong image of the U.K., the center of art."

A parallel event introducing Korean artists to the U.K. will be held in the next few months.

"The two countries will come even closer through cultural ties and deep understanding," Fryer said.

SeMA curator Park Ga-hee handpicked works for the exhibit, considering the common, underlying artistic value despite different foundations and histories.

"The selected works reflect major social, political and cultural events in the U.K. since the 1980s up to now," Park explained. "On the second floor, we explore popular British icons such as soccer, punk rock musicians such as David Bowie and Harry Potter and widen the scope to artworks that presents bare skin of British people, politics, class and race."

The exhibit begins with "Folk Archive" by Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane on the second floor. The artwork is like a small exhibition itself, consisting of over 280 objects from British popular culture.

Grayson Perry's impressive eight-meter tapestry "Comfort Blanket" is based on the 10-pound note and creates a collage of cultural references in the U.K, which would be uncomfortably familiar with anyone grown up in Britain.

Lubaina Himid's "1792"

John Akomfrah's "The Unfinished Conversation" examines Jamaican-born sociologist and theorist Stuart Hall, who arrived in the U.K. in the 1950s, and the question of identity.

Works on the third floor are more actively raising their voice on social issues. A series of colorful, boisterous banners by Ed Hall was created for various unions, campaigns and protests, which are directly connected to social movements.

German artist Wolfgang Tillmans' "pro-EU anti Brexit Poster Campaign" reflects the artist's "European Family" idea coming from his background ― born and raised in Germany to Polish and Spanish parents and now sharing his time between London and Berlin.

"Echoes of the past continue through today and we try to reflect artist's response to social, political and sort of national identity issues," Fryer said.

"Almost all the works come from the British Council Collection, so the institution made the first selection and curator Park chose the works for the SeMA exhibition out of many thousands of works," Fryer said. "The British Council Collection tries to select works that represent how we want to represent British art. So in a sense, what we have for this exhibit is a conversation between British and Korean curators."

The exhibit runs until Nov. 12. For more information, visit sema.seoul.go.kr or call 02-2124-8800.

Julian Opie holds a solo exhibition at Suwon Ipark Museum of Art through Jan. 21, 2018. / Courtesy of Suwon Ipark Museum of Art

Julian Opie’s walking figures visit Suwon

British artist Julian Opie is well-known among Koreans as his media art "People Walking," a moving image of faceless people walking on a green background, is displayed on the facade of Seoul Square, opposite Seoul Station.

Though he is mostly known for the walking figures, a solo exhibition of Opie at the Suwon Ipark Museum of Art in Gyeonggi Province gives a comprehensive look of the artist's oeuvre, which expands beyond the walking figures and portraits of people.

"For me, it has been a great opportunity to show the breadth of what I'm interested in," Opie said at a press conference.

Among 80 works on display, the artist's signature walking people series engages people with cities where they live and walk such and London, Seoul and Melbourne. It's interesting how people's attire and walking style reflect characteristics of the city they live.

"It's natural for people to walk and it's pictorially and graphically dynamic," the artist referred to the reason for his interest in walking figures. "People of different regions have different costumes, walking styles and skin colors. It creates a whole different mood.”

Julian Opie's "Walking in Hackney"

"Towers. 2" is a large-scale sculpture resembling skyscrapers and reveals Opie's cityscape memories.

The municipal museum is located right next to Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, a popular tourist attraction. Inspired by the reflections of visitors on the exterior of the museum, Opie installed an LED piece of walking figures on the glass wall.

The artist's lesser-known works include large murals such as "Plain" and "River." These murals use simple lines and colors to create almost abstract landscapes.

"To me, the subject matter is more like a tool or material I use. It's not so central. I don't make landscapes only, but it was an opportunity to expand in an exhibition of this scale. It was fun to experiment with sound and sense of space," Opie said.

The exhibit runs until Jan. 21, 2018. Admission is 4,000 won for adults. For more information, visit sima.suwon.go.kr or call 031-228-3800.

Julian Opie's paintings on dispay at Suwon Ipark Museum of Art.