Photos courtesy of Harn Museum of Art

The Harn Museum at the University of Florida is home to the new Cofrin Asian Art Wing, featuring rare pieces of Korean art.

by LINDA SON

A part of Korean history and culture laid dormant for decades, tucked away in storage, until a curator saw the potential in the East Asian treasures.

“The collection we have came from General James Van Fleet,” said Jason Steuber, Asian art curator for the Harn Museum at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “He was an important commander for the U.S. and U.N. forces during the Korean conflict.”

Kim Hongdo

General Van Fleet’s collection included hanging scroll masterpieces from artists Kim Hongdo (1745-ca. 1806), Jang Seungeop (1843-1897) and Kim Eunho (1892-1979), among other rare pieces of art. According to Steuber, Van Fleet donated his collection to the University of Florida in 1988, two years before the opening of the Harn Museum, and it remained in storage for decades.

Kim Eunho

The collection, which grew with the acquisition of works from private collections over the past 20 years, came out of storage a few times since the university acquired the works, but it wasn’t until 2008 that they started gaining recognition.

“Since 2008, I have been able to bring scholars from Korea, as well as Korean art curators from across America, to see the collection,” said Steuber. “I [also] made at least six trips to Korea to introduce the collection.”

All that hard work to bring recognition to the Harn Museum’s collection of Korean art paid off in big ways. The Korea Foundation and the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration recognized it as a significant part of Korean history and culture and awarded grants to install a new gallery, which will be a main feature of the Harn Museum’s new Asian art wing.

The museum just opened the doors of the newly built Cofrin Asian Art Wing to the public on March 31. The $20 million wing, which adds an additional 26,000 square feet, hosts over 2,000 works of art from Korea, China, Japan, India, the Himalayas, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Continue Reading »

Taking Refuge in Satire

Song Byeok painted propaganda art for the North Korean regime until he escaped in 2002. Now, the dissident artist paints satire and plans to spread his message to the world.

by LOLA PAK
photographs by SOOJI KIMN

As people file through the Rodriguez Room of the Goat Farm Arts Center in Atlanta on Feb. 17 for an art exhibition, the soft-spoken, bespectacled artist stands in the corner quietly watching them make their way from painting to painting. The 20-piece exhibit, titled Departure, chronicles 42-year-old Song Byeok’s journey from being a dutiful propaganda artist for the North Korean regime to a fearless satirist mocking the same autocracy that also imprisoned him.

“I know it’s dangerous, putting my face out there in the media, but I’m an artist,” says Song, whose name is a pseudonym. “How can I live in fear and do what I want to do? You just have to do what you can for now and fix things as you go. For me, I’m sending a message to North Korea.”

Departure is not just a representation of his personal exodus from North Korea in 2002 via China, but retaliation for the country’s willful ignorance of the people’s plight. It also serves as a mouthpiece for the stories of his countrymen. Continue Reading »

North Korea Orchestra in Paris Shows Kim Jong Un Opening Window on World
Bloomberg

North Korea’s Unhasu orchestra will leave its crowd-pleasing “Cantata to Comrade Kim Jong Il” at home in favor of Brahms’s first symphony when it plays in Paris on March 14.

For the three-year-old orchestra, the Paris event is its first performance abroad. The joint concert with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salle Pleyel in Paris will be conducted by South Korea’s Myung-Whun Chung. Together with events this month in Washington and New York, it may signal the willingness of Kim Jong Un, the new leader of the so-called “Hermit Kingdom,” to reduce its isolation.

N.Koreans Keep Fleeing Despite Tough Border Controls
Chosun Ilbo

North Koreans continue to escape across the border to China despite stricter controls in the wake of global uproar about the looming repatriation of defectors by Beijing, activist group Good Friends said Wednesday.

The group said a five-member family from Musan, North Hamgyong Province suddenly disappeared on Feb. 17. Although the entire border nearby was shut down and searched, nobody was able to find them. Five days later, a worker at a cooperative farm in Onsong, North Hamgyong Province was arrested for crossing the river, and another person was arrested in China after making it across. On Feb. 23, two women who tried to cross the river from Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province were arrested as well.

Nuclear envoys of the rival Koreas in New York
Associated Press via Google News

Nuclear envoys of the rival Koreas both addressed a closed-door conference on security in Northeast Asia on Thursday but there was no word on whether they spoke to each other.

The two-day, academic forum in New York is an opportunity to break the ice between communist North Korea and U.S.-allied South Korea, which in turn could nudge forward efforts to restart long-stalled, six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear program.

$17.8 million award in jet crash appealed
San Diego Union-Tribune

The government will appeal a federal judge’s decision to award $17.8 million to the family of three people killed in University City when a Marine jet fighter crashed into their home in 2008.

The formal notice of appeal in the case brought by Don Yoon and his relatives was filed Tuesday and did not specify what the government will contest. Kevin Boyle, one of the lawyers for Yoon and his family, said that the only thing the government could argue was that the award by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller was excessive.

Nexon’s Daniel Kim plots move into social and mobile games
Venture Beat

For the better part of a decade, Korea’s Nexon has been making online games that users can start playing for free. If they want, they can pay real money for virtual goods such as swords or decorations. Now the game industry is shifting in that direction. Nexon, which raised $1.2 billion in a public offering in December on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, also plans to do its own shifting into mobile and social games.

Daniel Kim became chief executive of Nexon America two years ago, and the company has become the mammal among the dinosaurs in the video game business. We sat down with Kim recently to discuss the state of Nexon and the game industry. Here is an edited transcript.

Tech officials admit errors in shooting timeline
AP via Google News

Virginia Tech’s initial timeline of the 2007 mass killing had errors in it, university officials acknowledged Thursday during a trial on the school’s response to the shootings.

The timeline is at the heart of a wrongful death lawsuit that claims Virginia Tech administrators attempted to cover their missteps after the first shootings on campus, and the 30 slayings that occurred 2 ½ hours later.

The suit was brought by the parents of two slain students. The parents have said if a specific warning had been issued earlier, some people might have survived the shooting spree by Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people and then himself.

The Crossbow Incident: A South Korean’s breaking point
Los Angeles Times

Now, five years later, the entire South Korean judiciary system is under siege, and the professor, free after serving time in prison for attempted murder, has become an underground hero of sorts.

Prosecutors called Kim Myung-ho a terrorist during his 2007 criminal trial, in which he contended that he had meant only to scare Judge Park Hong-woo. The judge had just ruled against him in a wrongful-termination lawsuit and was returning to his apartment when the attack took place.

But for some, Kim is a Korean version of the Michael Douglas character in the 1993 film “Falling Down,” an average citizen who became unhinged by his anger at society.

Yoon Suk Yi Of Strasburg Charged In Road Rage Incident Cracked Windshield, Hit Other Driver In the Face Say Police
WUSA9 (Virginia)

According to Virginia State Police, Yoon Suk Yi was driving a Mercedes Benz that swerved in front of a Toyota Camry heading east on Interstate 66 near the 63 mile marker at approximately 7:30 a.m. When the Toyota driver honked his horn, the Yi allegedly stopped the Mercedes and got out of the car. State police say he then walked to the Toyota and hit the windshield with his forearm, cracking the windshield. The Toyota’s driver then rolled down his window and, according to police, Yi struck him in the face.

Lotus to be Civic Center Plaza’s next art piece
San Francisco Examiner

First it was a giant six-armed Buddha, then an illuminated dragon boat. Now, the Civic Center Plaza — fast becoming San Francisco’s prized venue for large-scale art — will showcase a 24-foot tall motorized red lotus flower.

Entitled “Breathing Flower,” the red lotus will have motorized bright-red fabric leaves that will open and close, a design that’s supposed to imitate the movement of the real thing. It will rest on a 12-square-foot base that’s 8 feet tall.

The sculpture, by Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa, is expected to appear in the plaza May 18 and remain until September. It is timed to coincide with the Asian Art Museum’s “Phantoms of Asia,” the institution’s first large-scale exhibition of contemporary art.

Vancouver devotees bemoan the end of the Coma Food Truck
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

Like mourners at a gravesite, people lined up Thursday on Railway Avenue in Vancouver’s industrial east side to get their last Korean barbecue tacos and bibimbaps from the popular Coma Food Truck, now in its final week of existence.

The predominantly 30-something crowd also expressed a wild variety of condolences – a sign of the passion and seriousness with which Vancouverites have become attached to food trucks.

Charleston exports a slippery, slimy treat
Statesman Journal (Salem, Ore.)

Hagfish feed on dead and dying sea creatures by burrowing into their carcasses and licking away organs and tissue with tooth-covered tongues.

Scientists know little about the prehistoric creature. But the blind, 17-inch-long invertebrates that live on the ocean floor are a delicacy in Korean cuisine.

In the early 2000s, overfishing had seriously depleted the Korean hagfish stock, so processors began looking for markets elsewhere in the world, including New England, British Columbia and the West Coast.

US Police Departments Face Challenges Recruiting Asian-Americans
Voice of America

As the number of Asian immigrants swell in many U.S. cities, police departments are struggling to recruit the Asian-American officers needed to adequately serve their communities.

“If you look around metropolitan areas, there are not many Asian officers compared to the Asian population,” said Fairfax Country Police Department Detective Lam Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American who also serves on the Asian-American Law Enforcement Association (AALEA), which promotes better relations between the police and the community.

Nguyen said this widespread problem is making it harder for police to build the trust and communication needed to be effective with the people they serve.

Here are some videos we’re watching this week at KoreAm.

Girls’ Generation’s Surprise
Girls’ Generation sent hearts of many South Korean soldiers aflutter as they made a surprise visit to a military base. The crowd of horny men soon became delirious, jumping up and down crazily as they sang along to the songs, eventually drowning out the Girls themselves.

Kids Getting Sprayed with Water
It’s not always expensive toys that bring children joy and amusement. Sometimes, it’s a cardboard box or even, in the case of this video, a spray bottle full of water. These two kids giggle and laugh endlessly because of the spray bottle, to the point of turning bright red.

David Choe Tags Facebook
David Choe, a muralist, painter and graffiti artist, was invited by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to the new headquarters of the social networking website. There, Choe tagged the pure white walls with different images, just as he had done in 2006, on the walls of the original Facebook headquarters.

Building Constructed in 15 Days
In 360 hours, a Chinese sustainable building company, Broad Group, did what many thought to be the impossible and the unsafe: they built a 30-story hotel prototype. The research in the video explains all the safety tests done for the building as well as how the building is much more efficient in saving and utilizing energy.

Lost in Tokyo
With two days to himself in Tokyo, Japan, photographer Mark Bramley took nearly 10,000 photographs and video footage of the bustling city. His time-lapsed video shows everyday life in Japan.

Kids React to K-pop
Eleven kids, aged 7 to 13, react to seeing Super Junior, Girls’ Generation and 2NE1 for the first time. The kids react and comment on the popularity of K-pop as well as style choices and the mass appeal K-pop may have.

Bonus Footage:

Spica – Doggedly music video with Lee Hyroi
Spica, a new girl group, features Lee Hyroi in their music video for “Doggedly.” Hyroi, who hasn’t made a music video appearance in a while, is from the same company as Spica.

Shrieking Reporter
A reporter demonstrates a different way of traveling down flights. The building she’s in offers a staircase as well as a slide and as she slides down, her hilarious and unique screams echo in the staircase.

Draft Punk Word Project
A class of seventh grade students participate in an exercise put to Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger.” The students follow the lyrics and raise the appropriate card to follow the song. Nothing like having a Western hipster as your English teacher.

Drummer Kid Boots and Rallies
After an intense drum solo, a drummer gets sick but stays professional the entire time, declining help from a teacher, who rushes to his aid. This kid is sick!

Beatboxing Flutist
This flutist takes her music to a whole different level. As she plays her piece, the young musician stars to beatbox, creating a unique sound.

Morbid Wedding
Chadil Duffy, a young man from Thailand, had plans of marrying Sarinya when she unexpectedly passed away. Duffy, so in love with his girlfriend of 10 years, continued on with the wedding and married her corpse. Yikes.

The Wonder Girls are Back!
The Wonder Girls return with a song demonstrating how far their English skills have come. “The DJ is Mine” features another group, School Gryls, and shows the two girl groups battling it out for the love of the club’s DJ.

Samsung’s Smart Window
Samsung has developed a remarkable device that puts LCD in the last place you’d think to put it: in a window. Their new Smart Window transparent LCD doesn’t use back light units like traditional LCD screens. Instead, it relies on ambient light to let you see what you’re doing and without the back unit lights, you can see through the display and even when there is no ambient light, the Smart Window has a special transparent back unit light to illuminate it.

Korean High School, the Documentary
Kelley Katzenmeyer graduated high school, left her home and began taking high school classes in South Korea. In Korea, she intended to look at the education system but later found students’ concerns with test scores as well as beauty.

If you have more videos, email them to linda@iamkoream.com.

by Jessica Yoon

Local artist Maggie Hazen has undertaken a project to create an art memorial in honor of the 20th anniversary of the LA Riots.

The memorial, commissioned by Korean Churches for Community Development (KCCD) and the SAIGU campaign, will be a modular installation consisting of approximately 6,000 miniature and individually crafted plaster vessels filled with basic food ingredients, which will represent the occupation and unification of the Los Angeles community.

“I just want to bring something beautiful to something that’s been destroyed,” Hazen told iamKoreAm.com in a phone interview. “I think it will speak to the community in terms of the picture of harmony and unity. That’s what I really want people to look out for.”

The 22-year-old recent graduate of Biola University said the program’s manager, Bonnie Kim, was familiar with her previous work and approached her to do the memorial. Hazen said she realized her work was all about mapping geographical regions of human conflict.

“The motivation is kind of what is the essence of a human being and what is our shared point of common interest?” Hazen said. “I realized that it was food, and so I’m using flour, rice, and cornmeal as three main food staples that kind of represent a wide brush stroke of ethnic diversity and something that we share in common.”

The memorial will also invite the direct involvement of the community by having a select group of 25 to 30 representatives who were directly affected by the riots to take part in creating the installation. The entire process will also be filmed and made into a short documentary featuring the stories of the representatives and the building process of the project.

The memorial placement will be part of a three-day event leading up to the Art Show opening on April 28, 2012 and the L.A. Riots commemorative service on April 29, 2012.

“I’m really just looking forward to seeing the community’s reaction and how they see the piece and I really want to hear what people are saying,” said Hazen. “I’m looking forward to different cultures to shake hands and come to some conclusions and some peace.”

Visit Hazen’s KickStarter page if you are interested in donating to this important project. For more info on the artist, go to maggiehazen.com.

WED's Links: Asian Ams grab Obama’s attention, Jenna Ushkowitz, SK's 1st Chemical Castration Pedophile; Uglydoll Makers http://t.co/w9gRr0sH

Tuesday's Links: North Korea (again), K-Pop, Author Krys Lee, Man charged with slapping loud kid in theater http://t.co/DhC62HjN

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Just a reminder, the SMTOWN live streaming K-pop concert is going on ... right now! http://t.co/JywXQ91F

I uploaded a @YouTube video http://t.co/NnQFpSdq SMTOWN World Tour - EXO, SHINEE, f(x) Performance P.2