"OUT OF RESIDENCE" WITHVALERIE CROSSWHITE

DMZ and Beyond...

2011-01-25T17:25:00.006-05:00

I tried to visit the DMZ, but my timing was bad.

The best way for Americans to see the Demilitarized Zone is to book a seat on the USO tour, which I did, and I was pretty excited to see the North Korean soldiers standing guard, the secret tunnels, and all the animal life that inhabits this unlikely and inadvertent wildlife sanctuary.

I went to the USO office on the morning of my tour. It had less razzle-dazzle than I was expecting--Bob Hope wasn't there--it seemed like it was mainly a place for soldiers to check their email and watch CNN. Me and the largest group of foreigners I'd seen in one spot since I'd arrived in Seoul boarded the tour bus.

Once we were well on our way to the North Korean Border, our guide Sunny got up and asked if everyone knew about the shootings from the previous day. I had no idea what she was talking about, but almost everyone else raised their hand, so she didn't bother to recap, she only mentioned that it might not be safe enough to visit. We would have to go there and check it out. Yikes! I was really confused and contemplating my death for the next hour while we were driving toward our suddenly terrifying destination, until finally she announced that it was indeed too dangerous and we would be heading back. Yay! I was disappointed to miss the DMZ, but ecstatic to not get caught in crossfire.

Once I got back to Alps Seoul I read the news about the North Korean shelling. WTF! I decided to hide in my room and watch television. After a few days of morbid dread and internet news obsessing, I realized I only had a few days left in Korea, and maybe I should be making more of it, so I rallied and had a nice last few days there.

After a couple of failed attempts, I finally met with Jin-kang, who is an artist living in New York but from Seoul, who was there for a show she was having and to visit her family. We hit it off immediately. She escorted me to her gallery, which I had been previously unable to find, and then we got pancakes and beer at the cafe of a friend of hers who is also a famous Korean actress (who, unfortunately, I didn't get to meet.)

I asked Jin-kang if she thought South Koreans were anxious about the military gestures from the North--it had seemed to me that there was an eerie calm in the city, and a strange expectation that everything would be perfectly fine. But my impressions were those of an outsider, and I really wanted to know what Jin-kang thought of it all. She said that she thought people were affected by it, and cited a very low attendance at the performance of "Spamalot" that she went to the previous night as proof of the general feeling of solemnity, which I thought was a hilarious but probably accurate barometer.

The next day I went to Itaewon, which is the neighborhood where most foreigners in Seoul live, where American soldiers go to cut loose, and also the only LGBT friendly area in the city--it seems like Korean culture doesn't generally even acknowledge homosexuality. There are lots of bars and clubs and ethnic food and shops, but I was a little underwhelmed--I probably should have gone at night when there was more going on.

During my last few days in Seoul I spent a lot of time at Shinsegae, the fancy department store with the food market in the basement, which I really grew to love. Who doesn't enjoy paying eight dollars for a Toblerone?

I also spent a lot of time wandering around the endless subterranean shopping malls. I was a little surprised to find this record store--LP's seem too analog for Korean sensibilities (maybe why it was completely empty.)

Peruvian flute bands are a familiar sight in New York City subway stations, but I was amazed and tickled to see these guys playing underground in Seoul on my last night. Despite hating Peruvian flute music with every cell in my body, I secretly hoped they would play "I'd Rather Be a Forest Than a Tree", but they didn't.

So long, Korea!

Television

2011-01-25T17:21:00.003-05:00

I wasn't expecting to enjoy traveling alone as much as I did, but there were some lonely moments--some times when I felt really alienated visiting such a homogeneous culture that I wasn't a part of, and some nights where I felt a little scared to be alone so far from home. Thank god for television! It really is like an electric friend--and I left my friend on whenever I was home.

The commercials on Korean television are often hilarious and always super-annoying. I saw a bunch that used American pop songs in really incongruous and unintentionally funny ways--like using "You Had a Bad Day" to advertise a scary zombie show.

There was always at least one channel playing American movies or television--luckily I like police procedurals. A lot of "Sex and the City" (which has apparently ushered in the practice of having brunch to the Land of Morning Calm) and "America's Funniest Home Videos". There were also some Spanish-language soaps.

On the Korean-language channels there always seemed to be playing some serious-looking Josean-era palace soap opera that seemed really excrutiating to watch.

And some positively terrifying cooking shows.

There was always at least one channel broadcasting English lessons. There was a channel that always showed someone explaining how to play video games, and three golf channels (wow).

Any images on television of people smoking, drinking, or doing drugs were pixelated or blurred out, but there was always this comical period-piece soft-core porn set in traditional hanok playing at 5 or 6 a.m.--a time slot I tend to associate with the "Sesame Street" set.

Bonguensa Temple

2011-01-25T17:06:00.006-05:00

Since I love, love, love the westernized and easily digestible nuggets of wisdom that Buddhism-lite has to offer, I was stoked to visit the temples of Seoul and get my Buddha on for real.

Did you know that Buddhism is actually a religion?

I knew it was, but I didn't really know, you know?

That is, until I visited Bonguensa Temple and finally connected the dots. Bonguensa is less central than Jogyesa Temple which I had already visited and enjoyed, but I heard that Bonguensa was very beautiful and relatively serene. Which turned out to be true, and it was fun to bop around all the little temples that comprise it. But I was struck for the first time there that Buddhism is something people really practice and believe in in a very ordinary, non-exotic way that I want no part of. Don't worry, this discovery hasn't shaken my pseudo-faith.

My favorite part of Bonguensa was the giant Buddha statue.

Also the wildly eclectic group of tiny Buddhas someone had nestled into a nearby nook.

Here are some stone lions...

...and some trees.

Secret Garden

2011-01-25T16:50:00.008-05:00

Of the many palaces in Seoul, I was most excited to visit Changdeokgung Palace, as I read it was the most beautiful--it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you can only see it through a guided tour. There is a special and infrequent tour you can take in the palace of the Huwon Garden--also known as the Secret Garden--which I was hell bent on doing, even though it didn't work out until the third time I tried to go.

It was really beautiful!

Here is our funny tour guide who told me he used to live in Long Island, but he couldn't remember where.

We tramped around the palace, checking out the buildings and the nature.

Mossy! Moss is soothing.

According to our tour guide, the paint on the ceiling of this gazebo is original to the 15th century. He also told us it was the only hexagonal gazebo in the world.

Many of the buildings in the palace were used as living quarters.

Here is the royal latrine (the servants had to use the woods).

Here's why the grounds were kept up so perfectly.

I liked the way our guide described these native rocks as "grotesque and beautiful".

Everyone on the tour was excited about the weird twin cats.

The Cathedral

2011-01-25T16:44:00.003-05:00

I went to Myeong-dong Cathedral on a Sunday afternoon. It's a Gothic Cathedral (yes, they have relics!), designed by French missionaries and built by Chinese laborers. It's also historically been a very important place in Korea's democratization.

I felt strangely out of place here, even though I was expecting to be in my comfort zone. The only place I visited in Seoul that made me more acutely aware of the fact that I was an outsider was the racetrack. But the vibe was friendly and very social; everyone was giving each other flowers after mass.

Jade crucifix, anyone?

Art in the Mall

2011-01-25T16:31:00.007-05:00

I went to a defunct underground mall that was turned into artist studios.

To get to the entrance, I had to go through the food market.

These turtles don't look anything like my pet turtle Scooter, but knowing they were going to be turned into soup made me a little uneasy.

The art mall sounded interesting, but turned out to be more dead mall that alternative art space, so I'm hoping it's a work in progress. There were some teenagers learning to paint patterns on plates, and some studios that weren't open to the public, but not much else in terms of "art". Otherwise, there were a bunch of fabric stores and fish restaurants. It was one of the many times when I wondered if being Korean would help me understand what was going on, or if the situation itself just didn't make sense.

I made two young friends who were probably there for the free juice boxes.

They liked me a lot and they gave me a piece of chocolate, a tangerine, a Dorito, and a mystery fruit/vegetable that I assumed was some kind of tuber (and which I never got around to figuring out how to eat.)

After I emerged, I walked around the neighborhood which seemed sort of like the Bowery (of the past) with it's restaurant supply shops.

Then I made my way out to the far-flung but delightful teahouse Suyeon Sanbang, which used to be the home of Korean novelist Lee Tae-jun

Chicken Museum and Others

2011-01-25T15:52:00.007-05:00

Samcheong-dong is a really lovely neighborhood that I kept going back to.

On this day, I went to see a cluster of little museums there. I started with the tiny Buddhist Museum, which was open but unattended and a little spooky.

The door was unlocked and the sign said they were open, but I still felt like I was trespassing. I resisted the urge to make some long distance calls on their phone, and hung out for a little while in their garden.

Next, the Gahoe Museum, which I was excited about because of their collection of Korean Shaman art and folk painting. They are housed in a small hanok, and the staff kindly served me some tea in the collection.

This is a reproduction of a doorway festooned with shamanic amulets for safety and fertility.

This may be the nicest painting in the entire world, and it's depicting a scene that is classic in Korean art--the tiger and the magpie. I love how this tiger is so gentle and sweet to the magpie, despite it's teasing. Considered very good luck.

Finally the Seoul Museum of Chicken Art, which sounds silly, but is dead serious. A better English translation might be the "Rooster Museum".

The reasons for the reverence Korean culture (and the Chicken Museum) has for the mighty chicken are succinctly laid out for visitors by this helpful sign:

Oh! Now I get it.

The curator generously gave me a personal tour of the collection which contained chicken art from Korea and around the world. He was filled with facts about chickens in art, and clearly loved his job. Fun!

Hanok Fabulous

2010-11-24T04:12:00.009-05:00

Traditional Korean homes are called hanok, and although contemporary Koreans have generally moved away from the hanok and toward the cement high-rise apartment building, a few people still live in them and others serve as a Colonial Williamsburg-type lesson in Korean heritage.

Namsangol Hanok Village was pretty neat, despite the fact that no one was walking around in traditional clothing or making horseshoes.

I remember something like this at the Enchanted Forest in Maryland.

I was really startled when I realized this was a napping person and not a mannequin.

In the distance in Namsan Tower.

After my stroll through Korean history, I went to Dongdaemun Market, and immediately wished I hadn't (so I left). Dongdaemun has over 20 malls and 30,000 shops, and stays open 18 hours a day so Koreans can go clothes shopping at any waking hour. Being a diminutive 5'3", Korean clothing malls were pretty amazing (everything fits!!!!) but the crowds were absolutely unbearable--much, much worse than anything I've experienced in New York. Plus, you're not allowed to try anything on first (what's that all about, Korea?)

Forest Life

2010-11-20T12:16:00.008-05:00

Seoul reminded me of New York in many ways, one way being that any brush with nature is pretty exciting stuff. It wasn't on my schedule, but no one in hell was going to keep me from visiting Seoul Forest to feed the "wild" deer. No one!!!

As soon as I got there I rented a bicycle and started cruising around. The "forest" is really just a park, but it was a lot of fun.

It felt a little like I had the place to myself.

These are sika deer. No touching!

Somewhere in the park is a vending machine that sells boxes of deer kibble, but I couldn't find it. Fortunately, this nice and adorable couple offered me some of theirs, otherwise I might have cried.

Once I got my wildlife fix, I took off on my bike again. I rode past a truly weird sculpture garden that seemed like it was from a dream.

I took this goofy shot of myself while riding the bicycle--not easy! If you'd ever seen me try to ride a bike, you'd be even more impressed.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

2010-11-20T11:50:00.006-05:00

Tae Kwon Do Palace & the Owl Museum

2010-11-20T10:31:00.013-05:00

Nayoung and I go to Busan

2010-11-20T09:54:00.007-05:00

I lost ₩10,000 at the races

2010-11-20T09:08:00.005-05:00

Relax! That's like, nine dollars.

In Korea, apparently, the racetrack is a non-sleazy place to bring your little kids for a Sunday afternoon outing.

Which I am in support of! When I visited the Seoul Race Park there were the requisite throngs of old men with racing forms chain smoking and chomping ginseng gum, but I didn't notice any real debauchery such as vomiting in trash cans à la Belmont Stakes. So I say, go for it, Mom and Dad!

In preparation for my day at the races, my husband Curtis gave me three key words for picking a winning pony: Nightshade, Pumpernickel, and Lapis Lazuli. Armed with this information, I arrived at the track and made my way to the optimistically named Lucky Ville Grandstand, where there is a translation service for foreigners who need help placing bets. After I was given a racing program in English and a quick tutorial, I scanned the list for connections to my keywords, but nothing was clicking. But! I did see a name I couldn't pass up: Golden Cat. The odds against Golden Cat were long, which appealed to me, so I bet it all on him to win, place, or show.

Golden Cat finished 7th, but I'd do it again.

Insadong & Jogyesa

2010-11-10T07:12:00.009-05:00

I went to Jogyesa, a Buddhist temple in the heart of Seoul. It was very crowded and for whatever reason all the worshipers were women. The service was in full swing when I arrived, and I felt a little self-conscious about being an interloper, but I mustered the confidence and situated myself on the floor in what turned out to be an aisle. I hadn't been able to find a spare prayer cushion and I was trying to get comfortable on the hard temple floor, when a sweet lady sitting behind me offered me one of hers. The two women directly in front of me noticed that I was being stepped over by everyone coming in to the temple, and they graciously shuffled their neighbors around to make room for me. The prostrating started, and the lady to my right took it upon herself to show me how to bow properly, although I couldn't keep it up for nearly as long as she did. I felt so unexpectedly welcomed, it was really wonderful!

There is a smaller adjacent temple that was dramatically less crowded.

Afterward I went to the neighborhood of Insa-dong, a quaint area with lots of shops and restaurants.

These teenagers interviewed me for a school project.

Before I left New York I read a book about Korean culture that was for the most part really insightful, but in the section about clothing it said that Koreans usually dressed very formally, wearing suits even when not at work, except for an artist, who might have a beard and wear a beret. Hilarious! I assumed it was just a stereotype the author had about artists, solidified probably from never having met any actual artists. But then I saw one! A real life artist donning a beret...fabulous!

I went to the Mokin Museum, a diminutive yet marvelous museum devoted to totemic art. Very inspiring.

It also boasts an amazing roof garden.

Shaman Village Adventure

2010-11-10T07:10:00.008-05:00

First, I went to the Seoul Museum of Art.

There was a fun kinetic sculpture in the courtyard.

Next on my schedule was the National Museum of Art, which is located inside the grounds of Deoksugung Palace. The show at the museum turned out to be a Picasso exhibit, so I rushed through it and then explored the rest of the palace.

There are several palaces in Seoul, and the ones I've seen are all nestled incongruously in dense parts of the city, most of which was built from 1970 onwards. Deoksugung Palace, by comparison, was built as a villa in the 15th century.

Look! I saw a red pigeon.

As I was leaving I caught the changing of the royal guard ceremony. The monarchy has ended, but the pageantry endures!

For some reason, as I was leaving a giant group of riot police was forming--the one photo I got of them doesn't really capture it, but there were suddenly hundreds of them streaming out of police buses. The mood on the street seemed fairly calm, and I couldn't really understand their presence there, but I decided I'd rather not wait to find out.

I was scheduled next to be visiting a nearby square, but instead I hopped on the subway and headed for Mt. Inwangsan, a sacred mountain in Korean shamanism. It's located a hop, skip, and a jump from the Dongnimmun subway station, and it's home to Korea's most important shamanist shrine, Guksadang.

I had to walk through a high-rise apartment complex to reach the shaman village.

Koreans practice several religions--Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, and shamanism--and there seems to be a good deal of overlap. Mt. Inwangsan is apparently no exception, as Buddhist temples coexist there with the shaman shrines.

There was a bit of a hike involved, but the shaman mountain was really worth it.

Here is a worshiper at Seonbawi, a strange rock formation that is known for it's fertility powers.

And here is Guksadang, the shamanist shrine.

There was a small group of women praying and talking inside, and one of them showed me around the tiny, mysterious shrine. There were some paintings and food offerings, and my friendly guide taught me the proper way to pray, talking all the while in Korean and blithely unaffected by the obvious fact that I couldn't understand a word she said. After a few minutes we left together and she leaned a large dried fish against the wall by the door.

Art Marathon

2010-11-10T07:09:00.002-05:00

I went to meet the very accommodating and thoughtful Soo-Jung Kang, who is a senior curator at the National Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum is located in Seoul Grand Park, along with a zoo and a little theme park, and there were throngs of adorable children doing really adorable things such as hurtling toward a giant tiger sculpture outside of the zoo,

and romping around this Calder stabile,

and shopping for plastic snakes and dinosaurs along the way.

Inside the museum is a giant Nam June Paik sculpture.

After a tour around the museum, Soo-Jung and I drove to Goyang, a suburb just outside of Seoul (although we were driving for over an hour) to visit a gallery with a feminist exhibition, and see the open studios of the museum's residency program, which featured a jazz trio and included a flurry of bows and a hemorrhage of business cards. Next we drove back into Seoul to meet her amiable and manicured friend Jieun Lee at a hilariously surreal cello & piano performance/video art piece/exquisite corpse power point presentation. Or something like that. Throughout it I was wavering between sleep and delirious laughter, but fortunately gave in to neither.

Jieun is a lawyer, and kindly invited me to a presentation she was giving the next morning to inform immigrant workers protesting at the G20 summit of their rights. (I really wanted to go, but gave in to jet-lagged sleep festival instead.) Here are Soo-Jung and Jieun.

To top off the evening, the three of us went with the curator from the feminist exhibit and some Aussie gallerists to get some dinner nearby. It was the only meal I've had so far in Korea that wasn't thrilled with, but I have to give myself credit for mustering the courage to try sea worms. Finally, back to Alps Seoul Guest House---I was so tired the helpful Aussies had to point me in the right direction.

Peace Museum

2010-11-10T07:06:00.000-05:00

I couldn't find the Peace Museum, so instead I wandered around Insa-dong, a quaint shopping area that has big appeal with tourists because of it's many souvenir and antique shops.

This shop had some nifty erotic pieces and lots of other things which may or may not be antiques.

I had a fun conversation with the shopkeeper who spoke enough English to ask me what I was doing in Korea, but not enough to understand "artist residency", so I drew a picture.

Then he looked up the English and Korean for "artist" on his iPhone, and we took turns practicing our new vocabulary word. Learning is fun!

Later I met with Won-Seok Koh, the curator of Space Gallery. He told me lots about the history of the gallery, which played a crucial role in Seoul's 1970's avant-garde art scene, and of the building, which was designed by the "father of modern Korean architecture" Swoo-geun Kim to house his architecture firm.

I'm not necessarily an architecture junkie, but I thought this space was really wonderful---inviting red brick with very low ceilings to make short people (something I have in common with most Koreans) feel comfortable and human. As opposed to uncomfortable and inhuman, or cold and short, or inconsequential and ant-like. Anyway, the roof garden offered a great view of the city.

After our meeting I wandered around the neighborhood a little more.

11/11 = love!

2010-11-10T06:21:00.000-05:00

Happy Armistice Day, allied nations!

It also happens to be my third wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, Curtis, I miss you!

Here in Korea 11/11 is Pepero day, when young couples give each other Lotte brand cookie sticks, a holiday that I imagine was invented by Lotte. Happy Pepero Day, young lovers!

And here in Seoul on 11/11 we seem to be celebrating the G20 Summit. Happy G20, everyone!

I will be celebrating 11/11 with a day trip to Busan with Nayoung from Seoul Art Space. I'm slightly disappointed about the timing because I think leaving Seoul will drastically reduce my chances of running into Barack Obama on the street (hang in there, Mr. President!), but I'm also relieved to have an excuse to escape the G20 pandemonium, which is predicted to be very pandemonious.

We shall see...

My Tiny Seoul

2010-11-10T05:19:00.000-05:00

Now that I've had a chance to settle in, I really like my apartment here at Alps Seoul Guest House.

My favorite thing about my apartment is the picture that is taped to the bathroom door of a much nicer apartment.

The toilet is really technologically advanced--it lights up, it's heated, and it has a bunch of mystery buttons on the side console. I almost lost an eye and flooded the bathroom experimenting with what turned out to be the bidet function.

Here is my street.

My pet eels.

Here is my neighborhood, Myeong-dong.

The closest grocery store is in the basement of a really fancy department store, Shinsegae. There is a Tiffany's branch right when you walk in, then you go down a few stairs and you're surrounded by dried fish.

And here is my street at night.

Subway System

2010-11-07T18:51:00.000-05:00

The subway system in Seoul is impressive. All the signs are in English as well as Korean, so it's fairly easy to navigate, plus the subway cars and stations are immaculate. Trains are frequent and quiet, and the people-watching is top-notch.

Jeong-yoon accompanied me for my first subway experience. She told me that the subway is used by everyone here--rich and poor--and it does seem pretty diverse in that regard. I commented to her on how clean it was compared to New York's subway system, and she seemed a little surprised. Sensing an opportunity, I told her about rats scurrying over the tracks dragging half-eaten bagels and people trimming their fingernails on the train in nyc, and she was hilariously horrified.

Later, she told me that these sliding door enclosures that separate all the tracks from the platforms are a recent addition from the last several years, and that the government put them there to prevent suicides, which are relatively frequent here.

I told her that no one in New York would commit suicide this way because it would be too disgusting, which fortunately she found funny.

It seems like almost every subway station has a sprawling underground mall inside it. Shopping seems to be the national pastime.

Advertising is everywhere in the subway system--on lighted kiosks and ubiquitous LCD screens. I think this one is kind of funny. I'm contemplating it's meaning daily.

Seoul Art Space Geumcheon

2010-11-04T19:30:00.000-04:00

On my first day I was picked up at my apartment by the tireless Jeong-yoon Choi, an art history student at the Women's University who was volunteering as a translator and chaperon with the reciprocating gallery here, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon. Together we rode the subway to the gallery to meet Na-young Yoon, who has sweetly organized my itinerary, and Hee-young Kim, the very commanding director of Seoul Art Space Geumcheon.

After going over my schedule we went to lunch, and over the course of the meal Na-young, who was at first only speaking through the interpreter began speaking to me in English. I was surprised when I first met her that she seemed to only speak Korean, because she had written me several very articulate emails in English. I think she was shy about her English--which I think may be pretty common--even though as it turns out she has spent a lot of time in the U.S.-- even getting her Master's degree there--and can speak very well and with a lot of warmth.

Geumcheon is pretty desolate compared with Myeong-dong. It seems to be in transition from an industrial area (mostly meat-packing) to more of an arts community, and I get the impression that Seoul Art Space Geumcheon is a key player in the changeover.

I came back the next day to go to a day-long symposium on "The Role of Art in the Public Domain" which was a little dry (even some of the presenters were rather charmingly dozing off onstage), but there were some highlights, such as Fram Kitagawa's presentation on the very magical Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial of which he is the director. http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/english/about/

Afterward I was invited to the dinner for the presenters which was a fun flurry of simultaneous translating. Also really delicious.

Here is Jeong-yoon on the right with the woman who was doing the Japanese translating.

An adorable waitress got really excited when she saw me and made me pose for this photo, which I guess she thought I would be just as excited about (okay, maybe she was right). Instead of "Cheese!" she had me say "Kimchi!".

Here I am!

2010-11-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

Made it!

I'm getting settled in Seoul Special City, trying to shed my jet lag, and finding my bearings. I am staying at the slightly decrepit but perfectly comfortable Alps Seoul guest house in Myeong-dong area, which is central Seoul and the home of many administrative buildings and gigantic shopping malls.

It seemed initially like I had no internet service, as the cable in my room appears to have been chewed on by an animal, and my first night I spent delirious and grumpy, hunting around the facilities for a wireless signal, finding one eventually in an upstairs shoe room/foyer with a light on a motion sensor timer set to turn off after 5 seconds, so I had to keep waving my arms around to be able to see. Lack of internet seemed very strange in Seoul--a city obsessed with technology--and indeed the next day I was given the wireless code, so now I get to blog from the comfort of my heated bed. Yay!