Art & Seoul

Samcheong-dong
I had tried to set up a meeting with Bahk Seon Ghi, but he was in Europe so I had to settle for a meeting with his gallery, SUN Gallery.

My meeting wasn't until noon, but I decided to have breakfast in Samcheong-dong since MC had recommended that I try sujaebi, a soup with pasta, at Samcheong-dong Sujaebi (apparently, this place is known for this local dish). But by the time I saw the restaurant from across the street, I was craving my usual latte and remembered that JC said I'd probably prefer the cafes serving waffles and French toast instead. And wouldn't you know it, on my side of the street, was Cafe 62-16 by TeaStory. I wandered in ready to order their crepes, but unfortunately, their crepe maker was not working. So I had their brunch waffle instead, which came with bacon, egg, sausage, salad on top of a green tea waffle. With a cup of skim latte, it was the perfect comfort breakfast on a wet and chilly morning.

After breakfast, I strolled down the street with its quaint shops, sleek galleries, restaurants and lots of cute, little cafes like Cafe 62-16. It reminded me a little bit of the small streets in Daikanyama. On a sunny day, it would be prefect for a Sunday morning post-brunch stroll. Being a bit under-dressed for the weather, I walked briskly towards SUN Gallery to avoid the eventual downpour. Christine was already there. We went through Bahk's portfolio. She had just visited his studio a week or so ago and she seemed quite smitten with him. She kept insisting that I should meet him next time I'm in Seoul. "It's a shame you can't meet him this time," she said, "because you'd be good friends. He's very friendly." He showed me pictures of his studio, which is about an hour or so outside of Seoul. There were pictures of individual pieces of charcoal laid out meticulously on the floor. He gets huge amounts of charcoal delivered every day.

After going through Bahk's works, she offered to take me around some of the other galleries nearby. Again, there was that Seoul hospitality. We walked over to Kukje Gallery's New Space where they had an impressive show on of Anselm Kiefer's works. The gallery also owns The Restaurant, which is next to the main gallery facing the street (whereas the New Space is in a building behind SUN Gallery). Christine joked that The Restaurant has to be expensive in order to support the galleries when they don't manage to sell any art. Next stop was Hakgojae, which had an exhibition of stunning wall installations of oil-on-canvas paintings by Choi Insun. Choi's canvases are seductively tactile. The paints are layered on so heavily in places, giving them a sculptural quality. As we were leaving, the owner gave me a monograph of the artist's works and an umbrella; as it had really started to pour. Yet more soul-warming, Seoul warmth on a cold day.

Kim Joon & Nancy Lang
We were scheduled to meet Nancy Lang in front of the Insa-dong Starbucks at 6pm. "You won't miss it," said RK. "It's the only Starbucks with its name in Korean (스 타 박 스)." Nancy is incredibly spunky. Her outfit that day made me think of Harajuku girls. She had on black patent leather pumps with knee-high black socks and a black-and-white checked Heidi-ish dress. She was just missing the pigtails.With her long, jet-black hair down, she looked like the darker Asian twin of a yodeling Swiss Heidi. One of her Taboo Yogini works was on show at a nearby gallery. At the entrance to the building, a couple of ladies were handing out flyers to the restaurant downstairs. One of the ladies spoke to Nancy and then Nancy beamed, "They just gave us a discount, so we should eat there. It's traditional Korean food."

We went up to the gallery and she explained the symbolism behind her work. A lot of it has to do with the women's intuition and power, on the one hand, and their vulnerabilities on the other hand. There was a reason for each visual element in the mixed-media works. She explained that she often put a Louis Vuitton bag in, because she loves Louis Vuitton handbags. That's probably why LV commissioned her to produce a work for one of their events. On this particular day, she was carrying a Gucci canvas bag with pink leather trim. "It's raining," she explained. "I don't want to ruin my Louis Vuitton bags."

Kim Joon joined us for dinner in the basement restaurant. Nancy ordered the traditional meal with lots of little dishes and limitless re-fills. I can't remember how many dishes we had, but there was beef, pork, fish, along with several vegetable dishes, glass noodles and pancake. I requested a bibimbap, because RK had forgotten to order it the night before and I just had to try this in Seoul.

Kim Joon doesn't really speak English, so Nancy and RK did most of the translating. His works, I learned, were not photographs at all. I had initially thought that he shot real models and then digitally layered the patterns on top of their skin. It turns out, everything is a digital creation; no photography involved. His works are an exploration of the social, cultural and psychological meanings behind tattoos. As we were finishing up our meal, Kim Joon suggested we head over to his place to see some of his works. Once again, I was surprised by the show of hospitality. On arrival, we were greeted by his beautiful wife and absolutely adorable and precocious 18-month-old daughter. Kim Joon's works are mesmerising, but his daughter is the masterpiece.

It was great seeing how locals live, but even more interesting to see how an artist lives. I always imagine messy studios, but because all of Kim Joon's recent works are done on computers, his "studio" was more like a study. And his house seemed like any other house, complete with garden. It was very comfortable, homey and normal.

Leeum Samsung Museum of Art
The final art stop of the trip was the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. Everyone raves about this musuem. It's got a great collection housed in great buildings. My favourite is Rem Koolhaas' Samsung Child Education & Culture Center. Museum 1 is designed by Mario Botta, while Museum 2 is designed by Jean Nouvel. This is an instance where the architecture doesn't try to steal the spotlight from the artworks (Miho Museum is a case where the architecture overshadows the collection). I loved the fact that the first piece greeting me at the entrance of Museum 2 was an Anish Kapoor -- a burgundy-coloured, concave mirror. The most fun, though, was an installation by Park Kiwon in the Koolhaas building. The piece, entitled Vacuum, is a room with all its walls and ceiling covered with industrial grease with the ground covered in inflatable square cushions. The museum has an audio guide that tells you about each piece as you stand in front of it. It's a well-done guide, well worth the 2,000won.

Seoul: Full of Hospitality

Seoul has never been high on my cities list. For roughly the same flying time, I could be in Tokyo. But when EO asked if I'd like to meet Korean artists Kim Joon and Nancy Lang, my interest in making a trip to Seoul was finally piqued. Even then, because of countless people's accounts, I was not that enthusiastic about the city itself, so I only stayed for a couple nights last week. Turns out, Seoul exceeded my expectations.

The first thing that struck me on arrival in Incheon, as I was looking for the SK Telecom counter, was Baskin Robbins. It kind of gave me that warm, fuzzy feeling of familiarity, even though it's been decades since I last had a Baskin Robbins ice cream (their bubble gum ice cream used to be my favourite). But the superficial sense of familiarity fades quickly in Seoul. Basically, it's the moment you hop in a taxi and try to go somewhere. It seems South Korea and Japan have a similar addressing system, where numbers are used to determine the "coordinates" of a building within an area. The problem is, nobody (aside from the people actually occupying the building) knows where the building is just by looking at the address.

I had a list of places I wanted to check out, complete with addresses and phone numbers. It took Grand Hyatt concierge nearly half an hour just to mark the rough, not exact, locations of 10 Corso Como, Boon the Shop, Spa Lei and a Korean BBQ restaurant in Sinsa-dong on a map. There seems to be a general lack of knowledge on the concierge desk. Turns out, 10 Corso Como and Boon the Shop are just a block or so away from each other in Cheongdam-dong.

Finally, armed with printed maps, I hit 10 Corso Como first. The Seoul outpost of this Milan concept store opened early this year. Those who have visited both say that the Seoul shop is better. It’s a beautifully-designed and conceived shop. Their fashion sections are a little more limited because Boon the Shop already owns the distribution for many of the major brands, but it's mix of coffee table books, fashion accessories, design furniture, exhibition space make it a great place to wander around. The cafe serves great paninis and lattes as well.


I got my first taste of Seoul hospitality when IL suggested I call her if I wanted to visit Boon the Shop. She wanted me to meet her friend IK who is the creative director for the shops, so I called IL while I was still in 10 Corso Como. I had wanted to meet IK for info on the retail scene in Seoul. She called me back to say that IK was in a meeting (I did end up meeting him the next day over coffee at 10 Corso Como when I learned that the two shops are actually distant cousins. 10 Corso Como is owned by a textile subsidiary of Samsung Corp. Shinsegae, which owns Boon the Shop among other things, used to be a part of Samsung. And because BTS owns most of the coveted labels, 10CC ends up having to buy from BTS.), but he had arranged for JH, one of the buyers to show me around. I fully expected IK to be busy, but I did not expect for him to arrange for someone else to play shop guide, especially on a drab, rainy day. JH picked me up from the 10 Corso Como's cafe. First, we walked to Boon the Shop Men, which was just around the corner, to have a quick look and pick up umbrellas. The 3-storey men's shop carries casualwear (Libertine, Comme des Garcons, DSquared, etc.) as well as suits in an cosy space.

Boon the Shop Men

Boon the Shop Women

The women's shop is much grander with its vaulted entrance lobby. I was very excited to see, hanging from the lobby ceiling, a charcoal spiral staircase installation by Bahk Seon Ghi, the artist I had most wanted to meet on this trip, but who, unfortunately, was in Europe.

The Bahk lobby installation.
You can't really see it here, but it is a spiral staircase out of individual pieces of charcoal.

Before she left me, JH had suggested I check out nearby Space Mue, another multi-brand fashion shop (Chloe, Balanciaga etc.). Of course, I had no idea where Space Mue was. So as I exited BTS, I walked into Vecchia e Nuovo (a branch of the same coffee shop in Westin Chosun, which is also owned by Shinsegae), a cute little cafe to ask for directions. The manager replied that she didn't know the shop, but that if I waited she would look it up on the internet. As I was waiting, I couldn't help but try their green tea cupcake. The cake part was very nice, but the icing was a tad too sweet. The manager gave me directions to the Gucci shop and then told me to ask the staff at Gucci for better directions; as Space Mue was nearby. As I was leaving, she even gave me a green tea cookie. Truly impressive service! But that wasn't to be an isolated incidence.

The green tea cupcake that I just had to try. Next time, I might go for the chocolate though.

I never did find Space Mue. I made it as far as Gucci, but the shop was already closed. After a bit more wandering around, it was time to look for the dinner venue. I hopped in a cab and handed the map to the driver. The driver looked at the map and said it didn't make any sense so I ended up calling the restaurant. I got dropped off and was pointed down a lane. Of course, I couldn't find the restaurant. I stopped off at a Family Mart, a bar, a shop, getting a little closer each step of the way. Finally, I ran into a guy who actually walked me to the correct lane.

IL had picked the restaurant; Sanbong Harogui (산봉 하로구이; 657-17 Sinsa-dong; +82 2 5462229) was her favourite Korean BBQ restaurant. RK, host of Talk Around on Arirang and who was instrumental in setting up the meet with Kim Joon and Nancy Lang (she's his co-host on Talk Around), explained that the restaurant was more like an izakaya where people go for drinks and then order some BBQ dishes as a snack. But we managed to make a very satisfying meal out of it while RK tried to teach me hangul (Korean alphabet). It's a great feeling when you can finally make some sense out of squiggles that previously meant nothing. The beef dishes were wonderful, but my favourite was the dumplings (mandu 만두). At one point, RK looked at my plate and exclaimed with a shocked look, "You ate both of them?!" Well, he was the one who put the two tennis-ball-sized dumplings on my plate in the first place. And they were delicious!

Real charcoal makes the meat even tastier!

After dinner, we were off to meet relatively recent newlyweds JP and MC for some Champagne in Garosu-gil, a really cool street to hangout with lots of little wine bars, cafes, boutiques etc. Of course, I had to ask them for their favourite restaurants. Here's their list (I didn't get a chance to try any of them, but definitely on my list for the next visit):
1. Tani in Cheongdam-dong, behind the Prada shop
2. Episode in Sinsa-dong on the northeast side of Dosan Park (the lanes along the eastern and southern sides of the park are lined with cute, little shops, restaurants and cafes. Hermes has a store here and, according to IK, it is a must see as their gallery space usually has interesting exhibitions).
3. Miss Park in Cheongdam-dong
4. Hashi behind Prince Hotel
5. Seasons in Cheongdam-dong

On my last morning, I decided to have breakfast at The Shilla before popping over to the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. And what greets me as soon as I walk into the lobby? Another Bahk Seon Ghi installation! This time, it's made of out crystal. I had the perfect breakfast for a cold, rainy day -- a very refreshing drink of ginseng with milk and honey and a bowl of wonton noodles.