Travels of THB: Day 4: Seoul

Day 4: Seoul

Death skulls or doll heads??

Weather: Cold to cool and very hazy (again)

Quote of the Day: How many? That many?

Fitness center and breakfast, then Ria and driver are on time for our 9:30 departure for another day of art chasing.

First stop is Gallery Oh (O on the sign), a small jewelry gallery on a very narrow street near a major residential area full of high rise apartment buildings (THB is here to give you the entire story, so a small selection of pics of apartment buildings is shown below. In fact, for those of you fascinated by large, similarly dreary collections of apartment buildings, skip the rest of the post and drop right to bottom).

That's half the store in the pic

DB found this gallery because the owner, Miwha Oh, is a member of AJF (Art Jewelry Forum) and goes to Schmuck every other year (a huge jewelry show in Munich every year). The gallery is in Gangnam, it’s through the tunnel under a mountain and across the river, and traffic leaving town is heavy (for those you fascinated by stories of heavy traffic, this is the post for you! Just pretend you’re in heavy traffic between 9:30am and 7pm with intermittent stops for art and skip to the pics of dreary apartment buildings and then await the Bhutan posts for more traffic alerts).

Oh has a very nice selection of artists, many DB knows and a few she remembers from Collect (another annual art show, in London; we were there in early 2018) and DB ends up selecting a handsome lightweight necklace, ideal for traveling, $600 and Miwha is happy to take dollars as she has sons living in New York and using $$ is no problem. Oops! Miwha e-mails later to tell us that the price was in euros! So we have underpaid around $80. Since we have $80 in won left over on exiting Korea, we’ll mail them to her after we return. {Ooooops, won spent in Seoul airport. And Miwha e-mails to say that she gave DB the collector's discount. Very nice!}

Our next stop is a first for Professor Kanwho Woo: DB made a connection through Nancy Selvin (at least one off, Prof Woo did not know anyone we mentioned) and we are the first people to visit Prof Woo’ s studio which is on the lower levels of his house near the university where he teaches. Even though it is not far from Gallery Oh, it takes a half hour or more as we navigate through a maze of streets near the university, and his house is down a very narrow street near the end of a cul-de-sac of single-family residences (unusual in Seoul). Prof Woo seems like a very sardonic guy, good humored and dealing in death skulls (or doll heads?). His wife is also a ceramic artist and there are cups, saucers, and bowls of her work in Prof Woo’s studio and dining space. You get the sense that he would be a good teacher: some charisma and lots of energy.

Prof Woo's house is around the corner

Early work

Pic taken by Ria

Prof's wife's work

Prof Woo coordinates this annual show for Korea where China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan take turns hosting the annual show.

Prof Woo's house; studios are on lower floors

This house is across the street: one cube on top of "foundation"...very unusual anywhere, especially in Seoul

Prof Woo’s work is all about large numbers: he assembles thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousand small doll heads, sometimes on plastic wire, sometimes in large wooden display structures. One of his installations uses 300,000 of these heads. He’s been in group shows where some of the other artists are familiar to us (including at 2018 Collect). And, he has another project: he gifts each of one of the small skulls and requests we send him a picture of the skull from somewhere around the world. So far he is up over 5,000 pictures. Maybe we will find the perfect photo ops in Bhutan (and thus share them with the followers of THB).

Time for lunch and, after discussing with Ria during our morning commute, we have settled on Korean BBQ at a place within a 10 minute drive of Prof Woo’s studio/house. Or, 5 minutes walking. It’s an inspired choice: we’ve preselected marinated beef (American or Australian; Korean beef is 2 to 3 times the price, like Wagyu beef in Japan). At the next table is what looks like a business group of 10-12 wearing red bibs (we are not offered the bibs).

The floor is heated, covered in linoleum

Garlic in oil warming up at top, meat perfect and ready to eat

The wrap!

Easily the best meal of the trip so far: put a grill and hot meat in front of THB, throw in a large shared brewski and some interesting condiments and use lettuce leaves to create a series of wraps, and you’re describing one of THB’s all time faves. THB occasionally forgets to make the wrap and just uses his chopsticks to pluck the meat off the grill and pop in his mouth. With an extra side of rice, $80 for three. Awesome, dude!

Suknam Yun. She's the one artist Ria found (she led a group from the Asian Museum here a few years ago), and it's quite a stop!

Actual chair

Portrait of the chair artist, Heesu Yoon

Cover of a catalog from a retrospective show of Asian women artists 1984-2012 that Suknam was a part of

Back to road again…over an hour to our next stop, the studio of 78 year old, self-taught, feminist Suknam Yun (or Yoon...seems interchangeable translation). And, more large numbers. She’s had a long career, 40 years, and made major installations of over a 1,000 wood cutouts of rescue dogs, wooden “signposts” of people, French provincial furniture of brightly colored fabric on iron/steel legs (to say “stay off me”), and is now working on a series of 16 large ink portraits on rice paper of women who have meant a lot to her/supported her in her life.

Suknam's daughter and dog portrait

Work in process

Older self-portrait

three pieces on wood, THB encaptivated

Over a thousand rescue dogs

THB was particularly drawn to some of the older wood figures and the portraits. Plus, even though Ria has to do some translating, Ms Sukham is clearly a character. On her property is a studio, a warehouse that would work well for a small winery, and next door a house occupied by her grown daughter, all on land she purchased 50 years ago. At that time it must have seemed like buying property in the desert 60 miles from Seoul. Now there are huge number of people living in those dreary collection of apartment buildings nearby.

Suknam signing a book of her work for us

DB talks to the daughter who went to high school and college in Connecticut and has returned to Korea (and maybe help take care of mom) and is teaching English. DB chats her up. She’s disappointed because the system and students demand she teach to the standardized tests and she know what it means to speak in American and her students aren’t interested. She’s also the model for several of the portraits, mom has made her look good…a nice touch.

A one man traffic jam: he doesn't hear us and doesn't "pull over" to let us by.

Ahhhhhhh, another long ride to the last of our studio visits with In Chin Lee, a well-known ceramicist. He’s another 60 miles from Seoul (we’re making a huge triangle today) in the midst of farms. On his large property he’s got a good sized studio, 3 wood burning kilns (one is now the pizza oven), electric kilns, a warehouse chockful of a history of In Chin’s work, a small showroom, a two or three bedroom house, an orchard of blueberry “trees”, two dogs, a very large vegetable garden (he feeds his friends and neighbors), and for all THB knows a rice paddy. The house is under-decorated. His work is unglazed wood fired and he gets amazing differentiation. While this style is typical for Japan, Korean potters traditionally fire only to provide a base for fine glazes (eg. Celadon) or China painting. His bowls are more Korean in shape, but the ceramics technique is definitely Japanese. (You probably figured this out, but DB added these last couple of sentences.)

In Chen, pic by Ria

Tea "cake"

One of the kilns

Another kiln

We’re served tea made from a 12 year old brick; In Chin goes through an elaborate process of warming the cups, making the tea, and regaling us with his history. He spent 10 years through high school and college in Fullerton and still owns a house in Covina Park. He’s very well collected and very well connected. He knows many of the ceramicists we’ve met, including several we just had dinner with as part of an opening at Patricia Sweetow’s gallery. He gives us advice on where to pursue the chase of art in China (DB and THB see another trip to Asia coming, maybe an extension from the Tokyo 2020 O’s?).

Multiples, again

In Chen is experimenting making candles. Early stages...

What is this? A version of a California Mission from the 1800s?

DB's fave

Two more missions

It's a chair!!! Who knew?

Outdoor planter

Blueberry tree orchard

He’s also a teacher, commuting to Seoul two times a week. Oh Boy, another time to use that old LA joke. There are two things people in LA consistently lie about: how far they commute to work and how much smog there is at their house. Seoul same-same but different. Certainly traffic tales of woe are exchanged with all our big city friends and acquaintances.

In Chin is gregarious, has two interns living with him, and making work regardless of how much he sells (or can store). He’s also done installations which highlight many of his pieces; e.g., stacked in large wire “baskets” holding hundreds of pieces that he pulled out of storage. (Another DB insert here: A museum asked him for a large piece. He works small. So, he did just as THB said: he took a bunch of old, small pieces, places them in a large basket: voila: a large piece. Actually very interesting because the small works in the basket span 20 years and differ in technique and color. Subtle, but very interesting in photos.)

Time for a tour:

Having just bought an immobile chair by Goro Suzuki and own a heavy Gordon Chandler metal chair that used to be in the backyard, a 250 pound Kvasbo sculpture and an immense king size bed in a heavy frame, we’re confronted with another option. Soon we won’t be able to move anything around in the loft.

Time to head back to downtown Seoul, 60 miles and a bit over an hour away. We say goodbye to Ria ($500/day) and our driver. Another great day chasing art!

Dinner in the executive lounge, packing, and a 7am transfer to the airport tomorrow morning.

Pics from around town: