This update includes a new Netflix documentary about the Nth Room, an award-nominated novel about a lesser-known side of Seoul life, colorful and striking Korean artists, and other things I've enjoyed the past few months. Thanks for taking a look!
 |
| A temple dressed with lanterns in celebration of Buddha's birthday. |
I received differing reactions to the collection of abandoned coffee cups I introduced last blog post. Some people declared the collection, "pretty weird," while others grinned and asked when my exhibition would open. Others didn't say anything at all but sent me photos of abandoned coffee cups to show their quiet tolerance for my quirky habit. Whatever others think I have no plans to put aside my hobby, and in fact, I expanded my photo collection to the word, "premium," to better understand the word's use in Korean advertising. Perhaps these collections will turn into more than pet projects or a quiet appreciation of overlooked details, but for now I'm happy to just notice and share.
Trip to Sokcho
Some of my friends planned a trip to Sokcho in celebration of two birthdays. Sokcho lies on the eastern side of the peninsula, right next to the ocean, and I was glad to get away from the city for a day. We listened to our "guilty pleasure" songs on the ride up (I chose Linkin Park) and sang worship songs on the way back to keep ourselves in balance. Our trip included a visit to a lovely café, plenty of seaside photos and, yes Joe Jonas, cake by the ocean.
Some Video Things
NOVAsia uploaded a podcast I arranged last November to talk about art in Korea. I was really happy for the excuse to reach out to Diana, who runs multiple projects about Korea's art scene (including a podcast), and Mersie, a singer-songwriter and artist.
Watching
Cyber Hell
This new documentary from Netflix pieces together interviews from reporters and policemen about the Nth Room case. The "Nth Room" describe a series of online chat rooms that sold illicit sexual content. Two individuals nicknamed "doctor" and "god god" led the chatrooms and extracted the photos by manipulating and threatening women. The documentary details the winding chase that eventually led to their captures and jail sentences.
This documentary is another attempt to bring awareness of digital sexual violence to the public, which initially gave a lukewarm response to the case when it broke in 2019. This kind of crime exists worldwide, and will only increase as the digital realm becomes more sophisticated. But more than awareness is necessary. The world has to cultivate societies that uplift women, rather than regard them as commodities, so we can stop this abuse.
Listening
Love, Hate and Cyberpunk
LOVE me - BE'O - BE'O is a fairly new rapper who reached success in 2021 through the hip-hop show, Show Me the Money, especially with his song, Counting Star. His newest track is a sweet, energetic plea to be loved, and is the perfect song to perform in front of the mirror (not that I would know). As a fairly young rapper, BE'O has lots of time to explore his sound and I'm excited to see what he will come up with next.
Reading
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park, Trans. by Anton Hur - This book was longlisted for the International Booker Prize, an award for novels translated to English and published in the UK or Ireland. Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith won the award in 2016 for The Vegetarian.
Love in the Big City depicts the life of a gay man living in Seoul, South Korea. The novel's domestic popularity seems surprising given Korea's status as conservative and unfriendly toward the LGBTQI+ community. The government still hasn't passed an anti-discrimination law to protect sexual or racial minorities, and the new presidency threatens to do away with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. In such an environment, a book with a gay protagonist seems unlikely to reach Korea's bestseller list, yet it scored big among both Korean and non-Korean audiences.
To learn more about the novel, you can watch this interview with Sang Young Park on Korea Society's YouTube channel.
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood - This collection of thoughts reads like a brain entering its third hour scrolling Instagram, or one deeply immersed in angry Twitter threads, or perhaps scanning a previously apolitical friend's fiery Facebook posts. The internet, or "portal," is where everything happens all the time, a place of constant reinvention. The book feels surreal when it mentions memes I came across on trips through the "portal" but never shared with a real living human. Apparently we were all laughing and cringing at the same things this entire time.
The tone changes after the author's niece is born. The baby has a rare disease that makes her brain swell and swell and swell, seeming to reflect the human brain's desire to endlessly consume information.
Below, some lines I liked from the novel.
"It was a mistake to believe that other people were not living as deeply as you were. Besides, you were not even living that deeply."
"It (the brain) had also once been the place where you sounded like yourself. Gradually it had become the place where we sounded like each other, through some erosion of wind or water on a self not nearly as firm as stone."
Writing
Asia Society Korea Center Blog Posts
I interned with Asia Society Korea Center from February to mid-May this year. Though the internship lasted only 3 months I got to write for the Center's blog about Korea-related topics. I included three articles below for anyone interested!
The Road to a Plastic-Free Society: Korea's Fight Against Plastic Waste
Korea's Election Street Scene: A Feast for the Senses
Korea's DMZ Offers a Safe Haven for Diverse Wildlife, For Now
Other Writing
Seeing
Talented artists
해성 (Haeseong) - When I first saw Haeseong's work on Angle Magazine I literally gasped. He combines modern youth culture with Korean folklore, such as the mischievous Dokkgaebi, to make intricate, affective images that bring to life an alternate universe.
리오지 (riojee) - I saw riojee at an art convention last year and love his childlike, whimsical style.
Gwangsoo Park - Pretty much everything this artist creates makes my jaw drop. Absolutely soul-wrenching pieces. Many feature biblical characters or have religious overtones, including the praying piece below and one featuring the New Testament's Doubting Thomas that I find personally affecting.
Gwangsoo also worked with the band, Hyukoh, on visuals for a 2017 album. You can see the collaboration in Hyukoh's music video for Tomboy below.
 |
| Tried raw fish for the first time in Sokcho! |
 | ||
|
 |
| On a video call with the bestest girl. |
 |
| I went to see live painting by the street artists, Royyaldog and Jay Flow, at NVM. The experience proved pretty funny because I was the only girl and I dressed in preppy work clothes, which contrasted sharply with everyone's street wear, tattoos, and alcoholic beverages.😳 |
 |
| A knitting café filled with knitted décor and loads of yarn for sale. Yup, all those are made with yarn! |
(Thanks for reading to the end. Let's meet again next time!)
A wide variety of info in this post! You’ve had a mind-expanding month.
ReplyDelete