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/ Korea Times Photos by Cathy Rose A. Garcia
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
``Kimchi Meets Vegemite'' may sound like an unusual title for an art exhibition. Featuring works by Australian artist Robert Liddicoat and Korean artist Choi Jin-ho, the exhibition combines the distinct styles of each artist's home country. While everyone in Korea knows what kimchi is, vegemite may be unfamiliar to those who have never been to Australia.
``Vegemite is this distinctively Australian paste. It's like a paste you put on to bread. It's salty and tastes a bit like strong soy paste… So Jin-ho came up with the name (of the exhibition). It's very Korean and very Australian. Their works are completely different styles, two different mediums, two different cultures, and yet they kind of work together,'' explained Mary Jane Liddicoat, Robert's daughter and Choi's wife.
Somehow the quirky title works for the exhibition, featuring colorful Australian landscapes alongside stone sculptures of the imaginary creature ``haechi,'' at Samtoh Gallery, Daehangno.
``His paintings also work well with Jin-ho's interpretation of modern contemporary Korean sculptures. He's been doing the `haechi' since 2002 or 2003, even before Seoul City decided to make it its symbol,'' Mary Jane said.
Liddicoat, who started painting when he was 10, has always been fascinated with color. ``I've grown up in this wonderful period of history of art in the 21st century where there are so many different styles. The thing that has persisted in my work is color. I've explored it in all its forms, realism, impressionism, post-impressionism and abstraction. I've explored color in those different forms,'' he told The Korea Times at Samtoh Gallery last week.
Based in Australia, Liddicoat and his wife started coming to Korea in 2001 to visit his daughter and grandchildren. Since then he's been here almost 13 times. His trips to Korea have had a profound impact in his work.
``First it was the marketplace, there's nothing in Australia like that. The fruits and vegetable stores, the colorful hanbok and even the colorful clothes of the ajummas. Another is the autumn forests, which change from yellow to red to orange to purple. It's an extraordinary blast of color that I've never experienced before. We don't get that in Australia. It just blew me away,'' he said.
The vivid colors of Korean landscapes and dynamic market scenes have inspired Liddicoat's paintings which have been featured in previous exhibitions in Seoul. However, this current exhibition is mostly Australian landscapes and the geometric abstract paintings.
The colorful abstract paintings were inspired by the tiles and mosaics Liddicoat saw while traveling to Jordan and Syria. ``I developed these paintings in 1989 or 1990, when I was visiting Mary Jane there. They were inspired by the Middle Eastern architecture, tiles and mosaics inside. I only discovered these paintings again last year, and I sent photos of it to Mary Jane, and she liked it,
Interestingly enough, Mary Jane said that many Korean viewers thought these abstract works were influenced by the Korean `bojagi' or traditional wrapping cloth,'' he said.
The exhibition runs through July 8. To go to Samtoh Gallery, get off at Hyehwa station, line 4, exit 2. Turn right at the KFC, and turn right at the first corner. Visit www.isamtoh.com or call (02) 3675-3737.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
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