Where The Hell Am I?: art

Showing posts with label art. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Platon's Photos from the New Yorker

Sergeant Matthis Chiroux, honorably discharged in 2007 after five years of service, refused to be redeployed in Iraq

Like I posted earlier, I'm into podcasts now.

I branched out and downloaded some from the New Yorker. On Tuesday I was listening to one with the photographer, Platon. In it he talks about taking photos of those in the service either before or after their deployment to Iraq.

Kesha Brown, photographed at the United States Military Academy at West Point during graduation week

Listening to his description of the photos is great and a couple of those descriptions had me near tears. Granted, I was listening to this while in transit on the Seoul subway system, so I was in that awkward situation where you know you're tearing up but you're holding back as to not make the people around you uncomfortable. I managed, but barely.

Here is the link to the podcast: Platon on photographing members of the military (you need iTunes to view this link).

And here is the link to the rest of Platon's photos in this series: Service

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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Kim Jong Il is Healthy (well, at least, on canvas)

This is what happens when I take off to L.A. for a week and come back completely obsessed by politics: I neglect my fellow bloggers.

I was over at the DeepGlamour site today and saw this great post by Kate on art and Kim Jong-il. He might be sick, or dead, but in art he's as healthy as an ox (or maybe as a goat).

Kim Jong Il: Alive, Robust in Art

Taking a leaf from Generalissmo Franco's political playbook, North Korean semi-strongman Kim Jong Il might be sick, might be dead, might be stuffed. He missed the country's 60th anniversary parade, leading to increased message traffic at Langley, no doubt.

But he's got the strength of 10,000 tigers, if the official art of North Korea is accurate. In fact, the whole country is good looking, strong, brave and energetic beyond belief.

North Korean posters are ubiquitous, with strong graphics, bold colors and relentless cheery exhortations, inviting the passer-by to join in:

LET'S EXTENSIVELY RAISE GOATS IN ALL FAMILIES! (Los Angeles is on board with this.)

LET'S LIVE AND WORK IN THE SPIRIT AND VIGOR OF THE PERIOD OF THE GREAT POST-WAR CHOLLIMA UPSURGE!

David Heather is the foremost authority on these posters, writing:

As important tools in the mobilization of the masses, posters have to have an instantaneous impact on the viewers' understanding and their desire to act upon this understanding. Their message has to be accessible, clear and direct; informative and explanatory, as well as exhortative. The link between contemplation and action is crucial.

The stylization of the figures turns them into instant icons--almost too perfect to be real, but as familiar pop singers in the West. The soldier, the scientist, the farmer are remote, benevolent and courageous, and urge the viewer to forget petty everyday cares and join them in the adventure of building North Korea.

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Monday, June 9, 2008

[Regina Walton`s Expat Interviews] Kolinka`s art lights up Seoul

When asked to describe his art, Parisian artist Alexandre Kolinka said it`s "immersive and interactive video art." Kolinka explains that he got his start as a video performance artist. "I`m coming from parties and real-time creations, so what I`m used to is a lot of real-time creations. What I`m doing now is video installations that stay longer in time, so that people can enjoy them longer. But I still want to bring my past experience from parties and make these (new) kinds of installations exciting."

His experience includes exhibits from Paris to Monaco, Oman, Beijing and now Seoul.

The art he`s doing now is new because he has struck out on his own. He`s going from creating designs in front of the public to events where images last longer than six hours. When he heard that Seoul City was seeking an artist to light up Seoul Tower he jumped on a flight to take pictures of the city, Seoul Tower and Namsan Park.

He did this because, he admits, in Paris when people think about Seoul, they think mobile phones and computers but they don`t know much about the city or its culture.

Kolinka says when government officials heard he had come here on his own to research the project, "they were completely crazy because they didn`t invite me, so they wanted to know more about me."

He got to meet with them and to learn more specifics about what they were expecting. He made a few sketches and computer designs of what he wanted to do. Based on those discussions, they gave him the okay to compete for the project.

One week later Kolinka was told he had been chosen to do the project.

He said he was very surprised because he was competing against some very big Korean companies, like Samsung and LG, but he believed that he had the best project. His concept was to have video of fire on the tower. Because he was not Korean, he had to work closely with a Korean company to help him with details when he did the project.

Kolinka believes that Korea is growing in terms of appreciation of art - and that involves compromise. The city officials wanted certain symbols that Koreans like to use when promoting tourism to Korea, like images of the four seasons. He realized that the city government wanted something to market Seoul while he wanted something more artistic. To that end, he was able to incorporate aspects of both into the project.

Currently, Kolinka said he is working on two other projects that will be bigger than the Namsan Park installation. Because Namdaemun had been burnt down at the time we spoke, he realized there was a heighten sensitivity to fire imagery. But Kolinka said he would like to do electronic fire again "because I think this kind of immersive video installation is really cool."

He is currently scouting out possible locations in Korea for his work and is planning China and Kazakhstan trips. "I`m moving on my own trying to meet city officials of big cities around the world."

When asked if he had any Korean exhibits scheduled, he said that he`s working on a big video project slated for sometime this year with his Korean producer.

Kolinka believes that the art scene in Korea is still developing. "I was here for two months making my installation and not once was I invited to gallery openings or other artistic events. I made my own moves to see various galleries and they`re just really quite young, I think. We have Korean artists abroad right now. In France, we have Lee Bul who is an amazing artist, but if you talk about Korean artists, we talk about Paik Nam-Jun from the 80s. Right now the most dynamic artists from Asia are coming from China.

"Koreans right now are stronger in electronic designs, video games and animation. Maybe I`m wrong, but Korea is really young ... now they have the time and money to think about art. You can feel it here. It`s exciting. There are so many young people - seems like there are young guys and girls running around," Kolinka said.

His assessment makes sense considering that Korea has been primarily concerned with economic development. Now that they`ve reached a certain economic level, Koreans have become more concerned with the arts.

When asked to sum up his feelings on working in Korea he said, "I`m really happy to be in Korea. I love Korea. It`s not easy, but I`m pleased to be here because there is a lot of energy here."

For more information on the Namsan Project see namsan-fire.blogspot.com

The Adobe Acrobat version of the column:
kh06102008 - Upload a Document to Scribd
Read this document on Scribd: kh06102008

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Friday, November 30, 2007

Seoul Tower Alight

Update: January 9, 2008 @ 8:29pm

Here is a video of Seoul Tower lit up by Kolinka:

I'll be interviewing him for my column in the Expat Living section of the Korea Herald. Stay tuned for that and I'll update this post when it's published.
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Update: January 4, 2008 @ 10:15am

I got a comment from Kolinka and he left this link: Namsan 2007-12-30

Check it out!

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From the Chosun Ilbo: Click on the pic to go to the news piece.

I missed this one.

I live near Seoul Tower and can view it from my apartment. However, this past week kept me busy, so I missed it.

Seoul Tower was lit up by Alexandre Kolinka to symbolize fire, spring, summer, autumn and winter. How pretty. This is what I get for NOT taking an evening walk up to Seoul tower this week.

However, there are no dates on this event on his website, so maybe it will be up for the whole month?

Décembre 2007 – Séoul, Corée

Installation vidéo pérenne, dont le concept initial évoluera jusqu’en 2010. Le projet a été commandité par la Mairie de Séoul.

I'll make sure to find out.

French lighting artist Alexandre Kolinka's 'Electronic Fire' installation lights up on Mt. Namsan for Seoul's 'Museum of Light' project. The work symbolizes, from left to right, fire, spring, summer, autumn and winter. /Yonhap

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Saturday, August 25, 2007

My Frustrated Inner Curator ;-)

Honestly, I should have indulged my right brain moreso than my left.

No huge regrets either way, but I wanted to be an artist when I was a five year old, a poet at one point, and ended up at a performing arts high school as a teen. I've always had leanings that way, but reacted strongly to the general assumption that artsy types were stupid.

So guess which route I went? Of course, had I gone the other way, I'd probably be blogging about how I should have gone to law school instead.

Plus, these interests aren't mutually exclusive by any stretch, so who knows what I'll get into in the future. As they say, the grass is always greener but this game ain't over yet.

Anyway, I've been surfing around and I've found some really interesting art websites. I think it's time to share a few.

Enjoy.