Aoife Casey and The Natural Beauty Project

Each week, the IAK, will feature an Irish person, living in Korea that has something interesting to share. This week, we meet Aoife Casey from The Natural Beauty Project, Korea.

My name is Aoife Casey.I am a Dublin born visual artist who graduated from National College of Art and Design in 2009 with a degree in Fine Art who is currently living and working in Seoul. Since graduating I have exhibited in Ireland and abroad.

My most recent work The Natural Beauty Project Seoul 2013 is a photography project encapsulating Korean natural beauty. I was shocked by, upon arrival to Korea, the mass media coverage and pressure on young women to have facial surgery, and not just a small eyelid surgery but invasive facial reconstruction. It baffled me and made me think about the ideals of beauty here compared to the rest of the world and also Ireland.

A photographic installation consisting of 50 black and white photographs of participants will be exhibited at Anni Gallery, Anguk station from the 1st-10th of October this year. This will be the first showing of the work which will hopefully be exhibited in another location toward the end of the year.

www.annigallery.com/en

The purpose of the exhibition is to celebrate natural beauty and question the ideals of beauty in Korea and their effect on culture and society. I want the show to be a platform for people to ask questions, debate and converse the topic.

Please like share and follow this Facebook page for continued updates and spread the word:

https://www.facebook.com/TheNaturalBeautyProjectSeoul2013

 Aoife.

Seoul Céilí: Irish Music and Dance Festival September 8, 2013

Get your dancing shoes warmed up as you are being served with advanced notice, the Irish Association of Korea’s 2013 Seoul Céilí: Irish Music and Dance Festival has been scheduled for September 8.

Once again, we have the very generous support of Daesung to thank for the use of their excellent facilities at the D-Cube Center in Sindorim Seoul.

Please visit our official event pages on Facebook and Meetup for full details and updates.

Korean War Veterans’ Continued Activities in Ireland.

I received a recent email from Ms Carol Walker, Director of the Somme Association and Somme Heritage Centre, with a full update of the recent activities of the Korean War Veterans who visited Korea in last April. The 60 year anniversary for the signing of the Armistice allowed for the special celebration and get together in Dublin, where veterans from near and far converged.

I’ve copied in Carol’s email here for those interested in keeping up to date with the veteran’s activities:

Dear Conor

 

I would like you to pass on my thanks to all the members of the Irish Association of Korea for their kind donation to the Irish Veterans.  We had an event on Saturday to mark the 60^th Anniversary of the signing of the Armistice and we got all those who travelled to Korea in April together in Dublin at the Museum in Colin’s Barracks. All the Veterans were in attendance.  The day started in Belfast at 0930hrs when a wreath was laid at the original Memorial from Korea. We then travelled down to Dublin and met with the other Veterans who had travelled from Dublin, Galway, Wicklow and even Mr Gorman from Kent.  We had lunch at the Museum and then watched all the photos from the trip on a large screen, much to the delight of the Veterans and it all brought back lots of fond memories of our trip to Korea. It was here that I was able to present all the Veterans with a cheque for £200 each thanks to the IAK and pay for the gathering. They asked me on their behalf to pass on their thanks.

 

As you can imagine there was lots of happy exchanging of memories.  We then went on a tour of the Museum and met up again for a much needed cup of tea at 1700hrs. The group then moved to the Ashling Hotel, were those who had travelled were staying and where we were all meeting again in the evening for dinner.  I had expected the Veterans to take a rest but no we ended up in the pub next door were some Guinness and whiskey was consumed. Dinner in the evening was a success and again lots of great memories were exchanged. This finished about 2200hrs when those sensible among us went home or too bed (this wasn’t actually too many).  I bet you have guest it but in good old fashioned Irish tradition we ended up in the pub next door again, were the crack was great and again the whiskey and Guinness flowed.  This ended at 2am with Aubrey Bunyan, Spencer McWhirter and Mr Michael Kelly being the last men standing.  Mr Kelly who didn’t partake in the drinking made sure everyone got home to bed.  We all met up for breakfast in the morning at 0930hrs and laughed about events.  We sadly said our goodbyes but promised to all meet up again soon.  I drove some of the Veterans home and they never stopped talking for the two and half hours it took.  I thought they would sleep for the journey but I was wrong.  I was exhausted but again the Veterans showed the stamina they had shown us all while on their revisit to Korea.

 

Many thanks for everything and I hope we may all meet again in the future.

  

Best regards

Carol

 

We will endeavour to keep you updated on their continued efforts both at home and on any trips they take to Korea.

See Irish short film “Irish Folk Furniture” tomorrow in Gangnam

Chinca magazine along with Platoon Kunsthalle are hosting 6 international short films tomorrow night (Sat) in Gangnam.

The Irish short film included is Irish folk furniture by Tony Donoghue has already won an award at the Sundance film festival. It uses animation to cover the history of farmhouse furniture in Tipperary and is really worth seeing.

For more details about the screening see the Facebook event

“My best Korean friend is…” or “My favorite Korean food is…”

This sounds like an interesting competition run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea and Arirang TV with prizes including a car and various tech gadgets.

You have to make a 3 min video about either of the above topics, post it on YouTube (or any other video site) and fill in an application form (that bit will probably take the longest). It’s open to anyone who is not of Korean descent. For full details and forms head over here

Korean Gaelic Football League 2013

The Seoul Gaels are hosting the third and final round of the 2013 Korean League which will take place near Choji station, Seoul (also known as Gangdon station, Seoul) on Saturday, August 24th (starting approx 11 am).

This is going to be a great day of competitive football, with a bit of hurling and a few fun games added in for the craic! There will be teams from the Laochra Busan and Daegu na Fianna clubs competing along with teams from the Seoul Gaels.

There will be an almighty after party at the Wolfhound in Itaewon. Money raised on the day will go to Animal Rescue Korea.

For more details and directions take a look over at the Seoul Gaels on Facebook.

Irish veterans of the Korean War interviewed on RTE Radio 1

Great radio interview by Brian O’Connell with Michael Kelly, Aubrey Bunyan and Canon Robert Jennings for RTE Radio 1. Click on the listen link here.

Michael, Aubrey and Robert were part of the recent veteran revisit which included the unveiling of the Irish war memorial. Remember you can see lots of photos of that visit at http://www.flickr.com/photos/koreanwarveteransfromireland/