seoul's quirks

Two Artists Look at Seoul’s Quirks

Some of the Mobile Food boxes that will be delivered at the opening of the exhibit at Gallery Door July 1. / Courtesy of the artists
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

Korea can be a confusing, fascinating and even somewhat infuriating place for foreigners.

At first glance, Korea, especially Seoul may seem like any other bustling metropolis, with efficient subways, posh department stores and crowded streets.

Soon, however, the little quirks of the city emerge: the often, nonsensical ``Konglish'' or Korean-English names of stores; rampaging motorbikes as much on the sidewalks as streets; and mushrooming street food stalls that emerge at night.

Artists Ron Saunders from the United States and Dirk van Lieshout, also known as Dirk Studio, from the Netherlands collaborated on a project-exhibition called ``Mobile Food." The exhibition, which opens Tuesday at Gallery Door, Hongdae, show how the two artists ``combined their shared knowledge of Seoul, one fresh and one informed, to observe the signature of city."

The Korea Times sat down for an interview with the two artists a few days ago, while they were preparing for the exhibition.

``This collaboration came from our ideas about Korea, looking at it as artists. We find things are quite fascinating. It's not culture shock, but being inundated with new things. We enjoy using those things in our works," Saunders said.

Saunders and van Lieshout only met a few months ago through a common friend, but found out they both had similar ideas about creating a magazine. They quickly started working on the Mobile Food project.

The Mobile Food project is an offshoot from van Lieshout's Mobile Studio project that started in 2006. For Mobile Studio, he created a portable cardboard studio that can be boxed up and shipped to any place in the world he goes to. ``I created the Mobile Studio to be flexible. It's about the place, time and city. It's a way for me to react to the surroundings," van Lieshout said.



The Mobile Food exhibit will feature cardboard boxes, postcards and a magazine. The big brown cardboard box is printed with sketches of typical Seoul scenes, like street food stalls. Saunders explained how the cardboard box is used as a symbol of how Korea is just a temporary home for foreigners.

``Each city has its particular way of presenting itself, which forces the artist to work in a different way. Seoul in particular presents the viewer with an overwhelming view of commerce. Companies and business are created and then quickly replaced. Everyday is an ongoing process of creation and recreation," said Saunders and while van Lieshout, in a joint artist statement for Mobile Food.

Saunders has been living here on and off for the past three years, while van Lieshout has been in Seoul for two months, as an artist in residence at Sssamzie Gallery.

As part of the exhibit, they made a magazine also titled Mobile Food. The magazine pages are filled with photographs of everyday scenes in Seoul and digitally altering it.

Photographs of buildings, motorbikes, shops and food stalls may seem ordinary to Koreans who consider it as part of everyday life, but foreigners consider these as unusual, exotic and sometimes, humorous.

``We are just totally appropriating everything we see. The sign (on the magazine cover) was not even Mobile Food. It was originally Mobile something else, so we changed the words to make it Food. The whole magazine is kind of like that," Saunders said

At the opening night at Gallery Door, the artists are preparing a performance that will feature the delivery men on motorbikes arriving with the Mobile Food boxes and doumi girls will sell the Mobile Food magazines.
Saunders said the seemingly mundane sights of motorbikes and doumi girls will be repositioned ``unusual" since they will be inside a gallery.

Mobile Food runs through July 5 at Gallery Door. Visit www.thedoor.co.kr.

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr