Exhibition
January 31–April 18, 2008
Toys are always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be. They can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. With Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood, The Korea Society put on display over 90 children's toys from South Korea in the 1970s and ‘80s. On loan from the Hyeon Tae-Joon Collection in Seoul, the toys—flamboyantly colored action figures, robots, miniature tanks and paper dolls—captured a society in economic and social flux and a generation with rising hopes for the future.
The exhibition debuted on January 31 with an opening reception. Guests admired lines of action figure heroes which, reflecting the economic circumstances of the period, were often bland knock-offs of foreign models. Plastic robots ornamented with futuristic weapons captured viewers' attention just as they had drawn in a generation of Korean boys, treating them to a sneak preview of a fantastic future where science made anything possible. Korean girls' futures were more limited, circumscribed by the miniature kitchen and hospital utensils and paper dolls that encouraged them to dream only of becoming housewives or nurses.
Many of the items in the exhibit were modeled on cartoon characters popular in Korea during the period, and in particular, characters drawn from Robot Taekwon V, Korea's first feature-length animated movie. Throughout its run, Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood was complemented by programs that explored the importance of animation and Robot Taekwon V to Korean youth culture.
On February 7, Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park, a professor in the department of film, television and theater at the University Notre Dame, gave a gallery talk titled "Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity." Magnan-Park explained how Robot Taekwon V cemented children's loyalty to an emerging South Korean identity by using a state-sanctioned style of taekwondo to fight off invidious foreign enemies. On March 18, The Korea Society screened Robot Taekwon V for an audience of animation enthusiasts.
Related program:
Cross-Cultural Traffic: Toying with Brands, Borders and Bootlegs
(Wednesday, May 28, 2008)
Press:
Korean Quarterly / Spring 2008
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|  Exhibition
July 26, 2007 - December 18, 2007
Opening Reception
Thursday, July 26 2007
- "... eye-catching." - New York Times Art Review,
"Korea’s Extraordinary Send-Offs for Ordinary People", August 17, 2007 link
- "... the artifacts... are truly treasures." - Japan Times Review,
"Little Friends for the Other World", October 11, 2007 link
Death is an aspect of the human condition that touches every culture in every age, and almost all cultures envelop death in a rich artistry as a way of managing the trauma it causes. In nineteenth and early twentieth century Korea, artisans carved joyful wooden figurines depicting acrobats, clowns and mystical animals-which are called kkoktu-to place on the funeral biers of the departed. A collection of 72 kkoktu will be brought to the U.S., for the first time ever, for an exhibition in The Korea Society Gallery. Organized jointly with the Seoul-based Ockrang Cultural Foundation, Korean Funerary Figures: Companions for the Journey to the Other World will run at The Korea Society Gallery from July 26 to November 20, 2007.
The kkoktu are archaeological treasures in their own right. Their costumes and poses reflect the realities of rural Korean village life during a period that left few written records. More importantly, the kkoktu open a window on a timeless, characteristically Korean attitude towards death. Though the gaiety depicted in many of the figurines may seem incompatible with mourning, what they are intended to express is a deep desire that the deceased loved one will enter the next world surrounded by joy. The figurines also embody a sophisticated appreciation of the fleeting nature of all experience.
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 Gallery Talk
Happy Souls and Anxious Mourners:
The Uses of Funeral Figures in Pre-Modern Korea
with
Charlotte Horlyck School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London Tuesday, November 6, 2007
When a member of the community dies, ritual helps to ease the pain of the living. In early Korea, where no effort was spared to ensure the satisfaction of the soul of the deceased, ritual also helped ease the pain of the departed soul. Throughout their history, Koreans employed a variety of highly crafted artifacts in their funeral rites in order to assuage and cheer the spirits of the dead. Professor of Korean art history Charlotte Horlyck will talk about the use of funeral figures in pre-modern Korea and how they reflect Koreans' changing interpretation of life, death and their own place in the cosmos.
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A New, Monthly Series of Gallery Talk Programs at The Korea Society
with
Suk-Young Kim
Professor of Theater at the University of California at Santa Barbara
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Communist regimes are often described as "drab," but North Korea is highly fashion conscious-a place where style and politics go hand in hand.
For decades, North Korea's political leaders have been preoccupied with designing uniforms for almost every sector of society. Fashion, especially women's fashion, is seen as a national project, meant to promote group identity and ideology. Like many authoritarian regimes, North Korean designers have been drawn to masculine, military styles that seem to embody revolutionary spirit. But women's fashion in North Korea also allows for a contradictory sense of traditional femininity.
Suk-Young Kim, Professor of Theater at the University of California at Santa Barbara, will discuss the purpose of state-directed fashion in North Korea, as well as the ways in which the country's dress codes affect women's body politics.
About the Presenter
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|  Exhibiting Korea
A New, Monthly Series of Gallery Talk Programs at The Korea Society
Film Screening of A Petal (꽃잎) and Q&A Session with Actress Young-Lan Lee
Associate Professor of drama at Kyung Hee University
Thursday, July 12, 2007
May 1980 still lives in infamy in South Korea. That month, residents of Kwangju demonstrated for an end to decades of military rule. But newly installed President Chun Doo-Hwan would broach no dissent. He ordered elite Korean paratroopers to storm the city and crush the protests. Untold numbers of protesting civilians were massacred in the assault.
It took director Jang Sun-Woo 15 years to find a producer brave enough to tackle the topic, but when he did, he filmed his masterpiece—A Petal (꽃잎)—a fierce and uncompromising look at the Kwangju uprising and its political and personal aftermath.
A Petal’s female lead was played by Lee Young-Lan, who won a Best Supporting Actress Award in 1996 at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival for her stirring performance. Following the screening, Lee will talk with the audience about the making of the film, its impact it’s release had throughout Asia and the painful, lingering legacy of the Kwangju uprising.
About the Presenter
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