Clik | Edition 8 | February 2021.
Clik | Edition 8 | February 2021.
Presented in association with Korea Tourism Organization
With approximately 5000 years of culinary history, the cultural importance of food in Korea, extends well beyond nourishment. When friends and colleagues greet each other in the morning, they ask, “Did you eat breakfast?”. This is considered as much of a greeting as it is an inquiry.
Korean traditional cuisine or Hansik represents the metaphysical view of Koreans – the theory of yin and yang (representing earth and heaven respectively) and the interaction between the two resulting in dynamic energies represented by the five elements that make up the universe (i.e., water, fire, wood, metal and earth). The traditional Korean table consists of dishes of five colours, namely, green, red, yellow, white, and black, which represent the five elements and also the five tastes of spicy, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. It is believed that a combination of dishes with these colours provides nutritional balance. A good example is bibimbap, which is rice mixed with assorted vegetables of different colours, egg and gochujang (red pepper paste).
The basics for Korean cooking include Kimchi which has been praised for its anti-carcogenic properties and its nutritional value; Gochujang (red pepper paste), a traditional condiment made by fermenting a mixture of chilli pepper and other ingredients; Deonjang (Soybean paste) and Ganjang (soy sauce).
The main cooking techniques used by Koreans are grilling, boiling, pan-frying and steaming which ensure that the food is healthy and easily digestible.
This cold noodle salad is made by tossing kimchi, cucumber and lettuce and cooked noodles along with a seasoning sauce made of gochujang (red chili pepper paste) and vinegar or soy sauce for serving.
Originally a dish for the royal table and thus made with several expensive ingredients, Bibim-guksu is now considered a summertime favourite. With generous portions of cucumber, this dish helps to cool down an overheated body, to quench thirst and to relieve swelling.
Jjimdak is a braised chicken dish made with chicken, various vegetables marinated in a ganjang (Korean soy sauce) based sauce.
Originating from Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, Jjimdak is popular as a side dish and as a snack, served with or without alcoholic beverages.
For Episode 3 in our Korean culinary series - Korean Cooking for Indian Homes, tune in to https://www.youtube.com/user/InKoCentre on Thursday, 11 February 2021 at 6.00 p.m. IST.
Inspired by a Garcia Marquez short story, BIRD is a series of solo movement propositions where we see the quirky bridging of two anatomies – that of human rootedness and of avian flight. Performed by four male soloists, the work seeks to question our very conception of the human form and proposes a reorganising of how we may understand our bodily selves.
With a background in classical Indian dance (Bharatanatyam), Preethi Athreya has been working within the Indian contemporary dance scene as a performer, choreographer and facilitator. She has been engaged since early 2000 in creating a personal movement language that reflects her relationship with her context, being at the same time open to new ways in how we may relate to the body. With a strong commitment to constantly redefine the Indian body, Preethi lives and works in Chennai, India.
Jeonghee Kang graduated from the Korea National University of Arts in 2002 and has been working as a stage lighting designer in the performing arts sector to provide the critical lighting component for music, dance and drama productions. She has worked as a freelance lighting designer to critical acclaim on several productions in Korea and on specially commissioned projects or projects supported by InKo Centre, India.
For Jeonghee, light is a tool to store memories and a channel to communicate with the world. She is therefore interested in light as an object that can communicate with the world more actively beyond merely its natural function to illuminate objects.
2015-2020
Music Drama: Human Fuga, Fish, Tree and Moon (commissioned by InKo Centre, India)
Musical: Bernarda Alba, Two weddings and a Funeral, The wind from a dream, Portrait of beauty
Drama: Educating RITA, Miss France, Les Jeudis de Charles et de Lula, New Moon, The Cherry Orchard
Modern Dance: Hidden, The Lost wax project (supported by InKo Centre, India)
Traditional Opera: The Old man and the sea
2010-2015
Music Drama: Bahucharamata-Beyond Binary (commissioned by InKo Centre, India)
Musical: Brooklyn, AGATHA, Requiem
Traditional Dance: GangGangsulae
Dance Drama: 嬖姬 - Phaedra, Meditation for the suffering
Traditional Opera: The tiger with white eyebrows
2002-2010
Modern Dance: SYS-Unselected time, Third Turn
Musical: In to the Wood
Drama: ELEEMOSYNARY, Some girls, ART, JUMP (Martial Arts-based theatre)
Korean Traditional Dance: Spring, 미롱媚弄
For Jeonghee, light is a tool to store memories and a channel to communicate with the world. She is therefore interested in light as an object that can communicate with the world more actively beyond merely the nature of light which illuminates objects.
Credits
Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy, performance.
Vikram Iyengar, performance.
Surjit Nongmeikapam, performance.
Joshua Sailo, performance.
Jeong Hee Kang, lighting design.
(Design interpreted by T.Balasaravanan)
Tobias Sturmer, music.
Sharan Devkar Shankar, film.
Preethi Athreya, concept/choreography.
Co-produced by Goethe Institut - Max Mueller Bhavan, Chennai; InKo Centre, Chennai; Alliance Française of Madras.
Thanks to: Shoonya Centre for Art and Somatic Practices, Bangalore/ Yumpham studios, Imphal/ Ranan, Kolkata/ Saraswatham, Chennai/ Art on the Terrace, Chennai.
Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes.
Tune in to www.inkocentre.org/Virtual_Connect_Cultural_Collaborations.html on Friday, 19 February 2021 6.00 p.m. IST.
Buncheong ware, or Punch'ong, is a form of traditional Korean stoneware, which take on a bluish-green or grayish-green colour tone on the body after glazing and firing and are then overlaid with white through the application of white-clay slip. Decorative designs are painted on the white slip using an iron pigment. It is the variations in decoration according to the white slip technique that characterizes the Buncheong style.
The clay and the glaze are basically a continuation of celadon but the clay body for Buncheong has a lower iron content than celadon clay, making Buncheong brighter in colour.
This style of stoneware originated in Korea in the 14th century and continues to be created today. Variations in the making process from region to region and in different periods were factors that led to the diversification of Buncheong as a style.
Sung Jae Choi's exhibition Landscape of the Heart, is divided into 4 thematic sections, each dealing with a specific process that emphasises harmonious forms of the natural world without as well as the peaceful landscape within.
Here below are the 4 sections as described by the artist:
In my Buncheong ceramic work, the process of applying a white slip and drawing on the surface of the vessel are two very important steps. This allows creative expression as a painting instead of decorative patterns. With traces of physical properties and a production process that embodies a free-spirited dynamic, Bunjang Buncheong ceramics lead to a harmonious expression of inner and outer landscapes.
As for the drawing methods, a white clay slip is used and applied with a paste brush. The aim is to soak a vessel in white clay slip or to pour the slip on the surface of a vessel with a gourd, before removal or retention of the half-dried slip on the surface with tools such as hands, tree branches, straws and bamboo knives. A pictorial image is made on the surface of the vessel, based on the contrast between the dark blue colour sourced from soil rich in iron and the white clay slip.
As for the drawing methods, a white clay slip is used and applied with a paste brush. The aim is to soak a vessel in white clay slip or to pour the slip on the surface of a vessel with a gourd, before removal or retention of the half-dried slip on the surface with tools such as hands, tree branches, straws and bamboo knives. A pictorial image is made on the surface of the vessel, based on the contrast between the dark blue colour sourced from soil rich in iron and the white clay slip.
A drawing can lead to effective expression where the physical properties of the soft white clay slip with water are represented as abstract paintings or natural landscape images. The images are revealed only just before the white clay slip is absorbed into the surface of a half-dried vessel. Pictorial characteristics and formativeness are provided by the strokes of a guiyal (rough brush) that looking at first like indifferent scribbling, gradually, with each and every hand stroke, unveil the landscape of the mind, a world of reverberated abstract images reminiscent of a scroll of a black-and-white painting.
Many of my Buncheong drawings show the image of a duck and from the image the viewer is led from the abstract traces of an action to a world of contemplation. The image, landscape and obscure memories together form an introspective connection between the audience and the artist.
The free expressivity and vivid painting characteristics of white and cobaltic decorated ceramics are used to express a landscape in the mind that contains nature through thought and contemplation with the lingering imagery and a tempered aesthetic. The images of white and cobaltic decoration and drawing create the abstract images of moments drawn from natural scenery such as, for example, the sight of a lake, waterside, water plants, waves, wind, fog, sky, sunlight, clouds, night, dawn, daylight.
My iron pigment painted Buncheong is a work that paints white slip on dark stoneware clay containing a lot of iron. The process combines abstract images of the scholar painters (문인화) style, which were expressed by scraping out the image with wooden sticks, fingers or with a brush. A white slip is first applied on the pots and the surface of white clay is scratched off the margin with a brush and a nail or awl to unveil the image. The focus is on the abstract leading to the landscape of the heart, where contrasting elements co-exist in harmony.
With a repeated process, unexpected harmony, like moments and traces of everyday life, with the depth of a natural layer of colours, are revealed as a beautiful and exuberant abstract image. The harmony of colours and the voluminous shape is reminiscent of a sound akin to powerful life force that can endure for many years to come.
Acclaimed Korean ceramicist Sung Jae Choi who has several exhibitions to his credit, is a glaze specialist whose works are included in many prestigious collections around the world. He is currently Head of the Graduate School and Professor in the Department of Traditional Art & Craft at The Korea National University of Cultural Heritage in Buyeo, Korea.
1985 Bachelor of Ceramics, Fine Arts School, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea.
1990 Master of Ceramics, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea.
Until 1992 Worked as a designer at Korea's Traditional Ceramics Research Institute to modernize the aesthetic sense and function of traditional ceramics.
1993 to 1994 Worked as a resident and as a visiting artist at Banff Art Center in Canada, Long Beach University, Art Farm and The Clay Studio in U.S.A.
1995 Returned to Korea and regularly presented ceramics lectures and ceramic work at Universities and participated in many international ceramic workshops.
2006 Guest Professor at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (U.S.A)
Since 1999 Member of the International Academy of Ceramics (Switzerland), Korea Contemporary Ceramic Arts Association and currently a member of the International Committee of Korea Ceramic Arts Foundation.
Since 2002 Professor of Ceramics at the Department of Traditional Arts & Crafts, Korea National University of Cultural Heritage in Buyeo and currently the Head of the Graduate School.
Since 2017 Guest Professor at Jingdezhen Ceramic University (China)
38 solo ceramic exhibitions in Korea, USA, Canada, Japan to date and has participated in over 300 domestic and overseas invitational group exhibitions.
Works exhibited in 40 domestic and foreign art museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in U.K., Sevres National Museum of Ceramics in France, The Art Institute of Chicago and Philadelphia Museum in the U.S., Korea National Contemporary Arts Museum and Korea Ceramic Foundation.
Click on www.inkocentre.org/Virtual_Connect_Cultural_Collaborations.html to view this exhibition at Prism - InKo Centre's virtual gallery, on Thursday, 25 February 2021 at 6.00 p.m. IST.