A good Korea move : Part 2 "Together in Harmony"

The exhibition "Together in Harmony for 50 years",was part of the celebration event for '50 years of Friendship Between Australia and Korea' at the Noori and Arum gallery in the Korea Foundation Cultural Centre in Seoul, Korea. The opening was on 4 -7pm Friday 29th April 2011 and the exhibition will continue until 17th May 2011.

I was one of 106 Australian and Korean-Australian artists invited to display one work in this major international exhibition. I was also one of the 40 artists invited to display a work in the Bom Gallery, in the Cheongdam-dong gallery precinct in Seoul.

Me, outside the Korea Foundation Cultural Centre, in front of the poster for the exhibition

My painting is in the centre of this photo, 2nd to the right of the man closely inspecting the exhibits. My work was hung in a very good position, almost directly opposite the entrance. But all the works were hung and lit beautifully- there were no bad positions.

Lost in Translation
K.W.A.S.S., the Korean Women's Art Society, had kindly provided my ticket, accommmodation and some spending money, in return for a seminar on my own  painting processes and techniques and a brief history of Australian Landscape Painting. 

This sounds deceptively easy, but it is a lot of ground to cover in an hour. Actually Robert Hughes, Elwynn Lynn, John McDonald and many other famous art critics and historians have tried valiantly to capture the essence of Australian Landscape Painting in less than 500 turgid pages and half a lifetime's study. And mostly failed just within sight of their goal, like so many other intrepid explorers lost in the Australian outback.

As well, I had to submit my entire talk several days before, so that it could be translated into Korean. I hadn't realised that this would be necessary, as I knew that someone would be available as a translator. So for the first couple of nights, jet-lagged as I was, I had to sit up until 3.30 am writing and re-writing my seminar. I realised that I had to cut down on slang or idiom to make it as coherent as possible for the translator,Kim Tae Eun. Trying to find a rational explanation of Sid Nolan and the Kelly myth in 25 words or less close to impossible. It would probably have been easier to learn Korean.
I wonder how "Such is life" translates...

Usually, I like to speak without notes, just referring to images for inspiration, while I work without a safety net! I couldn't do that here, so I hope that the information was interesting enough to make up for any lack of spontanaeity.

I also showed a few photos of me painting "en plein air" at Barangaroo, which the audience seemed to respond to. When in doubt show a picture.

Related posts in this blog

• A good Korea move (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)