Korean Artists Association UK

An Evening with UK-based Korean Artists, sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Cultural Centre, 27 June 2008

Report by Jennifer Barclay, with photos also by David Kilburn and Saharial

Let’s hope this is the first of many evenings devoted to young Korean artists living in the UK, because the Korean Cultural Centre provides an ideal central venue – and Friday night events mean out-of-towners like me can run across to Waterloo and catch the last train home, knowing we don’t have to be up early next morning for work. Judging by the turnout of well over a hundred guests, if word is spread through various channels there could be a regular audience for similar evenings organised by the eleven-year-old Korean Artists Association UK.

H. E. Ambassador Chun Yung-woo, formerly ROK representative to the Six Party Talks, this week saw his hard work come to fruition with the symbolic demolition of part of the Yongbyon nuclear installation in North Korea. Such a promising result had to be mentioned, but the Ambassador with modesty simply noted it was an auspicious occasion, and went on to give a brief, genial and upbeat speech recognising the value of artists in helping to define ‘who we are, the Korean people and nation’ and promoting ‘cultural exchange, friendship and understanding’.

Francesca Cho, chairman of the Korean Artists Association UK, made a great choice by asking London Korean Links’ founder, editor and principal blogger, Philip Gowman, to be master of ceremonies for the evening. He put everything perfectly into context for a mixed Korean-British audience, and his musical knowledge particularly helped to introduce the first performance of violin and guitar by the elegant So Ra Lee and Jieun Park in little black dresses and strappy heels, and Roger Norkie, a South African honorary member of KAA. The beautiful Elgar piece felt, as he said, like music for the English ‘tea ceremony’ of cucumber sandwiches. The three pieces they played were not too long, popular and very nicely presented. A great start to the evening.

Next came poet Hye Kyoung Park reciting ‘The Face of Separation’. It was clever to choose something short and poignant, though I couldn’t catch the English version and thought it might be interesting another time for a native English speaker to perform the English half.

I’ve seen them before, and everyone loves them: Ji Eun Jung on kayagum – in a stunning silk gown that gives her arms freedom to roam with such precision across the wide instrument – and Sung Min Jeon on guitar. Personally, I love it when Ji Eun Jung plays older Korean music on the traditional 12-string kayagum, which looks like a zither, a big plank of wood with strings, invented in the sixth century. What an amazing sound – dare I say it, a bit bluegrass-like, with rhythmic ebb and flow – they call it a Korean harp but the sound has a more masculine twang to me, like a slide guitar. Then she swapped it for a 25-string later variation on the kayagum, and the two of them played ‘Amazing Grace’, Arirang and the Korean and English national anthems – the crowd were delighted. I think maybe the guitar was overpowering the kayagum slightly at first, but the sound mix was fixed halfway through.

Philip admitted that his wife Louise first knew of Korea when she saw the dance troupe the Little Angels on Blue Peter. And now a former member of the Little Angels, Sunnee Park, was to perform a shaman ritual dance. She waved incense into the corners of the room, shook a very loud bell at each wall to ward off evil spirits, span around with swathes of cloth in a pretty way, all the while trying to show the trance-like state of the shaman. It was a stylised dance inspired by shamanistic ritual, which for me didn’t convey the slightly scary, ecstatic emotion of the real thing. But as a dance based on an aspect of Korean culture, it works well.

To round off the performances came the troupe of very young students of taekwondo, led by Seung Soo Ha. ‘Don’t try any of this at home,’ quipped Philip, as perhaps the youngest and tiniest of the martial artists punched and kicked his way through a series of wood blocks. In another routine, three of the kids knelt to the ground together while another leaped over all their backs and then roundhouse kicked through another block. The tallest of them was blindfolded, took three steps back and then kicked an apple off a knife. What’s even cuter about these kids is that it’s not always perfect. When their instructor ended the display by punching his way through six blocks together, one sweet kid at the edge of the stage raised his eyebrows above the rims of his glasses and stuck his tongue right out in admiration.

The evening’s displays were cleverly kept to an hour, and there was time to mingle afterwards over a drink and a buffet, during which I discovered my new favourite Korean food, squid and vegetables cooked in a spicy sauce, which I believe is spelled something like ojinga hae muchim. Let’s hope I can find some at the Korean Food Festival coming up in New Malden on 12 July.

I was gutted to discover last week that I’d missed Dulsori performing at Petworth Park in Sussex, my own neck of the woods, only finding out about the concert a day later. Please let us know about Korean artists’ performances across the country. London Korean Links aims to spread the word, but it relies on getting the information from the organisers and sponsors. The Korean Cultural Centre and the Embassy seem to be doing a fantastic job of sponsoring fine events. Keep it coming.

Links:

• In addition to the photos below, more photos can be found here.

[Show as slideshow]

Inside the KCC (photo: David Kilburn)

H.E. Ambassador Chun Yung-woo (photo: Jennifer Barclay)

The MC (photo: Jennifer Barclay)

Sora Lee (photo: David Kilburn)

Bach Double (photo: Saharial)

Park Hye-kyung (photo: Saharial)

Jung Ji-eun (photo: David Kilburn)

Jung Ji-eun and Jeon Sung-min (photo: David Kilburn)

Sunnee Lee (photo: David Kilburn)

Sunnee Lee (photo: David Kilburn)

Sunnee Lee (photo: David Kilburn)

Sunnee Lee (photo: David Kilburn)

Sunnee Lee (photo: David Kilburn)

Sunnee Lee (photo: David Kilburn)

The Taekwondo team (photo: Saharial)

Francesca Cho (photo: David Kilburn)

Inside the KCC (photo: Jennifer Barclay)

The British Council and the Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) are co-sponsoring an exhibition by artists of Korean origin working in the UK. The exhibition will be held in December 2008.

A Call for Artists notice has been published on the KCC website. Applications are due in by 1 August 2008. Details and applications forms from the KCC.

Or you can download an application form here.

For a number of years, Korean artists in the UK have gathered together more or less formally in an Association to speak for their collective needs and promote their collective talents. They have, for example, lobbied over the years for the establishment of the Korean Cultural Centre. The most recent event to have showcased some of their members was the Chuseok event at Asia House in 2006.

Partly to ensure a co-ordinated local artistic input into the 2008 Dano festival in Trafalgar Square, towards the end of last year there was a consensus that the Association needed to be reinvigorated. Earlier this month, the Korean Artists Association UK was relaunched with a new charter, new leadership and an expanded (and growing) membership.

The association represents UK-based Korean artists in the widest sense of that term. Attendees at the recent inaugural meeting (in the very fine setting of the recently opened Han Restaurant, 1 New Malden High Street) included a classical music conductor (a protégé of Sir Colin Davis, no less), a dance therapist, contemporary and traditional Korean dancers and choreographers, a production assistant, a kayageum player, arts / theatre administrators, an academic, and last but not least an artist in the narrower sense of the word, in the person of the Association’s new Chairman, Francesca Cho.

It is purely coincidental that the Association has come back to life at the same time that the Cultural Centre has found a permanent establishment in Central London. But the coincidence represents an opportunity for both organisations. For the Cultural Centre the Association represents a ready-made source of local expertise and talent to advise on and provide ‘content’ for exhibitions and performances. For the Association, the new venue represents a potential new outlet to showcase their talents.

No doubt the Director of the Cultural Centre has a hotline from Seoul which is constantly ringing with requests from artists, promoters, civil servants and other well-positioned sponsors wanting to bring various talents for display at the Central London space. Many (indeed, it is to be hoped, all) of these will add to the exciting dialogue of cultural interchange which the Cultural Centre promises. It is to be hoped, however, that the Cultural Centre will reserve some time and space for those who are living and breathing that cultural dialogue on a daily basis: namely, Korean artists in the UK who are exploring that inter-cultural exchange as part of their own professional work, here and now.

I have in the past observed, both privately and to a lesser extent on London Korean Links, how Koreans in London seem unable to work together, creating diplomatic incidents out of what should be triumphant collaborations. Those who know me offline will know that I have been very restrained in what I have chosen to write in public. At this point therefore I shall restrict myself to saying that I hope that the two organisations, both of which are at the start of what I hope will be a long and fruitful existence, will do more than simply co-exist but will contribute positively to each other’s success. Welcome to the KAA and the KCC both.