The artwork/pop/fashion worlds bought really fired up last calendar year when curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (V&A) introduced an exhibition devoted to South Korean well known society. “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” (24 September-25 June 2023) is the very first exhibition of its kind to showcase the colourful and dynamic popular culture of South Korea,” claimed a V&A press assertion. The exhibition organisers have exposed additional, shedding light on how and why “South Korea promptly developed from a state ravaged by war in the late 1950s to a major cultural powerhouse by the early 2000s”. Crucially, hallyu will be made use of as a gateway “to investigate common and contemporary Korean lifestyle by connecting historic objects with popular tradition and socio-political events”.
Everyone appeared to be jigging together to Gangnam Design and style in 2012 singer PSY’s pink accommodate jacket will greet people, a reminder of this all-conquering (and infuriating) dance strike. Highlights in the “Setting the Scene” segment, focused on K-drama and movie, involve the pink guard costumes and a inexperienced tracksuit from the strike Netflix sequence Squid Activity, and a recreation of the toilet set from Bong Joon-Ho’s Oscar-profitable film Parasite. The segment “Global Groove” explores the explosion of K-Pop bands by social media, presenting essential ephemera like early album covers from critical K-Pop pioneers these as Search engine marketing Taiji and Boys and BoA (artwork entire world darlings BTS, who have labored with Serpentine Galleries in London, will also feature). The clearly show also weaves in vital operates by artists these kinds of as Nam June Paik, Ham Kyungah and Gwon Osang. Exhibition supporters consist of South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Netmarble Healer.B, a subsidiary of the recreation company Netmarble.
Painted sculpture “Untitled G-Dragon, A House of No Name” by Gwon Osang
© Courtesy Gwon Osang
