Was sitting in a plaza in front of the new iPark Mall at Yongsan Station in central Seoul. The large video screen, which are ubiquitous in Seoul, continually played this footage of Western women in thin, light dresses riding horses, an advertisement for the mall. Kind of weird, in my opinion – I just don’t see the connection at all between these women tremendously enjoying riding a horse with this Seoul shopping mall.
This clip is of a 2003 piece called “Rhapsody In Seoul” that the late Paik Nam June did. It’s displayed at the Seoul Museum. Paik Nam June, who passed away this past February, was one of the world’s pioneers of video art. He was part of a collective in the early 1960s that also had his friend Yoko Ono as a member. He performed with John Cage amongst others.
Here’s a link to an article, which lists several of the places where his works can be seen in Korea:
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200602/kt2006020520262711700.htm
a compilation of time-lapse videos from an apartment window in the Oksu area of Seoul
I posted a clip a few weeks ago of lanterns around Korea in advance of Buddha’s birthday. Well, this past Friday, May 5th, was Buddha’s birthday. I found myself at a temple called Shilsangsa in Jirisan National Park, one of South Korea’s most beautiful areas. The lanterns were everywhere as this clip shows. They were particularly cool, because they all used real candles, so you could get a real sense of the flickering, and even one or two lanterns caught fire, probably cause it was a windy night. I’ve seen the lanterns several times, but I never thought about what happens to them after Buddha’s birthday. At this temple, late in the evening at the end of the birthday, the visitors and the monks took down all the lanterns and one by one ripped the paper off, and broke apart the metal frames. It took several hours for 40+ people to dismantle all the lanterns.
I live on the sixth floor on a building on a hill. From around noon, the shadow of this building casts itself on the playing field of Okjeong Middle School. From my window, I sometimes look over it and observe. It’s easy to see the social dynamics of junior high in South Korea. Girls chatting in small groups. The minority of boys who prefer basketball to soccer. The awkward boys not good at sports, who play-fight with each other at the edge of the field. Notice all the boys wearing the black school uniform. I pity them, wearing those cumbersome clothes all year. The uniforms are expensive. Students can only afford one or two of them, so they start to smell from lack of washing. I can attest to this because I taught at a junior high in Japan for two years, and the classrooms could really start to reek. Some of the rebellious kids in Japan would modify and individualize their school uniforms, in spite of the helpless protests of the teachers — no such modification seems to take place in Korean schools, where even the hair length of both male and female students is still regulated by school rules.
I biked past this guy today, then had to slow down, get my camera out, and ask if I could take a picture. Check out this bike! It’s pumping out the “bbong-jjak” (sometimes called Korea’s version of country & western music). He has all these add-ons, statues attached to his bike, mirrors, and what-not. Very cool. I wonder what I can do to make my own bike cooler.
North Korea Projections
coming soon
Very fresh public toilet. Insert 100 won (about 10 cents). The space capsule toilet. Prepare to be launched into space, fueled by your own dung. Notice the LED display where you wash your hands. Notice the shower-head equipment near the toilet, in case you want to hose yourself off rather than the conventional wipe, or else you could hose down the seat before seokang in fresh.
