While I’ve stood in lines for art exhibits in the past, I don’t ever recall standing in line for a photography exhibit. In the sun. On a hot summer day. It wasn’t so bad as I had a friend to keep me company and the Daelim Museum had a beautiful glass front inspired by the works of artist Piet Mondrian. The colorful glass extended to the gallery’s stairway with a playful touch. You could see the people on the inside peering out and taking pictures and selfies, making it a space of interaction between art, architecture, and visitors on the inside and out. Paul McCartney had recently held a concert in Seoul so I’m sure there were a lot of his fans among the people in line. I love some of the Beatles songs like Yesterday, Let It Be, and Run For Your Life, but I wasn’t fan enough to drop $300 on a standing ticket.
The exhibit had beautiful, intimate, and loving photos of her husband and children that just made you feel happy looking at them. One of the photos featured a pair of feet holding a cup with toes manicured in red, blue, yellow, purple, and green. It was a whimsical photo with that concept alone, but when I saw the hair and realized it was Paul McCartney’s feet I burst out laughing. It felt good to laugh and have fun in a gallery. It felt freeing and lighthearted; quite a nice change from the serious faces and stifling silence of galleries at times. I loved that you could feel the film in the photos, that special feeling that comes from film that you don’t get in digital photos. After seeing her collection of polaroids of sheep and snow-bears, I wanted to run out and buy a polaroid camera to start my own collection.
Outside of the Daelim Museum they had a lovely cafe with an outdoor sitting area to rest our feet and enjoy some coffee. I think I enjoyed the Daelim Museum more than some of the other gallery settings I’ve been to. They have an interesting space architecturally and just this nice cafe shaded with trees created for a perfect place to enjoy art and nature in the middle of the hectic city that Seoul is.
The most unfortunate thing about going to an exhibition during the last few days is that they run out of postcards. They still had the exhibit book which was in an accordion shape with photos on both the front and back. I think I would have been more happy with a book with more pages of her photos inside, but I suppose it makes for a perfect coffee table book with its peculiar shape. Now all I need is a polaroid camera, or maybe even a toy film camera for lomography. What do you think?
