The Road to Happiness: Special exhibition at the National Museum of Korea

by Jessica Paik

The Gilt-Bronze Incense Burner of Baekje Dynasty

Entering a dark veiled room, I am guided through an exhibition on Taoist Culture in Korea with a collection of small artifacts and paintings. The walls are lined with an array of ceramic ewers, porcelain peach-shaped water droppers, screen paintings, jeweled pendants and more. However, upon entering, a large fabric stretched cubical conspicuously invades the space. From the outside, only a mysterious golden haze is seen. A few steps more into the cubical opening, the highlight of this exhibition is revealed: The Gilt-Bronze Incense Burner of Baekje Dynasty. Placed at the center of the exhibition in its own private compartment, this piece is clearly meant to display one of Korea’s most prized treasures.

Painting in Korea

(Materials I use in my painting class; bamboo brush, rice and or mulberry paper, water, paperweights, and ink and ink stone)

As my mind wanders and drifts, my hand pushes the ink-stick against the stone mortar. Back and forth, the stick glides through the pool of diluted soot ink, gradually becoming more and more saturated. I then submerge the bamboo brush into a ceramic bowl filled with water and then rinse the bristles against the edge of a plate, refining the tip of the artist’s tool. Afterwards, I dip the brush into the ink and then loosen the dark pigments within the hairs by shifting them along the plate’s luster center. From the ink stone to plate, I begin to create gradations in the brush, figuring out how dark I wish to paint my lines. Finally, as the brush absorbs the ink and the bristles form into an elegant point, I begin to draw on the porous landscape of mulberry paper.

Traditions through Change: Korean Performance in Modern Society

The K-pop band “Rainbow” at the DSP family festival. We often associate K-pop with Korean performance, but what about the older aspects of Korean culture, both as an alternative and an influence?

In a stadium 45 minutes outside of Seoul, eight thousand fans gather to watch the national finals for League of Legends.  At the same time in the Itaewon district north of the river, a Mudang balances an entire pig on a pitchfork to dispel evil spirits.   Somewhere South of the river, nearby to Gangnam, a group of B-boys, poppers and lockers gather for an organized dance battle, competing with dancers from China, Japan and the U.S.  Korea is a dynamic country where ancient performance traditions exist side by side with the popular culture of E-sports and K-pop.  Oftentimes as countries develop economically traditions will die out or become commoditized purely for tourism.  However, South Korea has managed to maintain a cultural identity in the performance arts, maintaining the traditions of ancestors while modernizing for the global cultural landscape.  While all of these performances are radically different on the surface, much of the core stays the same throughout.  Tae Oh’Sok, one of Korea’s most prominent modern playwirghts, describes the nation better than I could:

“Listen to Korean music and its chang’dan.  It never keeps the same beat.  Our tradition has always avoided set forms.  It has descended to us not in a fixed state, but in an ever-flowing fashion.  Our tradition has grown spontaneously.  It constantly changes, reflecting current situations because it is innately fluid.” – Tae Oh’Sok