We drove up from the coast to Gwangju, a large city with a reputation for contemporary art that is second only to Seoul. It’s enormous and busy but full of life and energy.
As we have coincided with the Gwangju Biennale, we spent the afternoon visiting some of the exhibit halls and saw some wonderful things – and some not so good.
As a sewer, I was fascinated by these paintings:
I found the photos by this artist with her mother very moving: here are a few of them:
There were lots of politics even before the exhibition began, China withdrew because the Taiwanese pavilion was named ‘Taiwan’. And there were lots of politics in the exhibition of course, including this very moving exhibition of political activists in the Philippines:
We were entranced with this toffee-looking substance poured into different shapes and textures:
And then we read that the artist’s name was Biscotti – how apt! But these, too were political:
And of course there was the usual silliness – we particularly liked this contraption:
Tomorrow, more Biennale plus a visit to the Art Museum, said to be the finest outside Seoul.
What a fantastic range of exhibits – must have made a nice change from the abundance of kitsch public art you came across in Seoul. Who on earth writes the artwork labels displayed in galleries – ‘a practice of monumental modesty which moves between art and life’. Indeed. Could AI do worse?
We saw some wonderful pieces, mostly film during our visit. In terms of the Artspeak , I’m not sure you’re meant to read all the way through these descriptions – best just to sort of get a feel for things? I’m confident you could get AI to rustle up a few thoughts ( Claude, please
Prepare a couple of paragraphs combining pretension and a sense of spurious complexity). That kind of thing?
Great exhibition. I love the mother daughter photos!
They were really wonderful! She’s a very appealing artist and the images were incredibly moving.
What a thoughtful selection of photos you chose to share from what must have been dozens of moving artworks. Women’s bodies and work throughout your choices are poignant. Love Biscotti’s use of rubber (and the leggo shaker!)
Many of the works were political in explicit and implicit ways. I too loved the Lego steps faker! There is something irrestible about an artist called Biscotti ( though I’m sure she doesn’t appreciate the jokes). Her rubberised fabrics were gorgeous and I particularly admired an older Korean woman reaching over the do not touch barrier just to check them out,