Rocking around Seoul with Hello Kitty and Vegan Noodles!

Ooooohh Hiya!!!

Today has been one of my favourite days since I arrived here in S.Korea! I was up mega early this morning to go and crack on with some research and fabric sourcing in Seoul....
En route I hit up the Hongdae area to check out some of the fashion stores and have a general peruse around the area! I LOVED it here! There are some awesome little stores, plenty of independent boutiques and an outrageous abundance of really cute clothing and accessory shops! 
I guess I would most liken it to a 'kind-of' Seoul version of Harajuku...with a slightly different crowd as the area is located close to Hongik University so it's a bit more studenty and less 'Kawaiiiiii'~with tonnes of colourful street art!!!! I spotted some real gems there so hopefully at some point during my stay here I will have the time to go and do some hardcore shopping!!!!

Imagine my joy when LOW AND BEHOLD I ended up at the Hello Kitty Cafe!!!! I'd been planning on going to another branch in the city for afternoon coffee so I was super surprised when I spotted the Hongdae cafe all pink and sparkly, twinkling in the corner of my eye! Obviously I was straight in there....WHAT A TREAT!!!! Ever since visiting the Taipei Hello Kitty Cafe, I'm obsessed with tracking down ALLLLL of the Kitty cafes and word on the street is there are several around Seoul....so I guess this will not be the last time you see photos of this ilk!!!!

Sorry about the Kitty overload but, I can't help myself! I was way too excited!!! I mean I even got a Kitty face stencilled onto my drink....TOTALLY GOURMET!!!!! Anyway....after the hullabaloo of the cafe I took a walk to another area of the city called Sinchon to check out an art shop for some material supplies on the way....it was such a lovely sunny day today so it was nice to kind of get a better grasp of the city... found a couple of corkers on my way....

I finally tracked down some dreammmmyyy vegan food for lunch after pinpointing every branch of 'Loving Hut' in Seoul on my map! I've been hot on the trail of this AMAZINNNGG veggie chain ever since I first discovered it in Vienna....this one was called the 'Rainbow' cafe and it was great because they have a load of Korean dishes like kimchi (without the sneaky fish!), Tteokbokki and a load of clay pot dishes which usually I can't sample because of the meat factor!!! They also have a decent selection of stuff you can buy to cook at home like vegan instant noodles and soy items which I totally stocked up on as it's quite tricky for me here to find stuff that I know is veggie safe!!! So now I have noodles galore sitting on my desk!!!

Afterwards I then pretty much spent the majority of today at the fabric market in Dongdaemun, beginning to source the materials for my project..... eeeessshhh this place is HUGE.... one of the best fabric markets I have ever been to EVER.....floor upon floor of fabrics, trimmings, jewellery, ribbons, bindings, chains, rhinestones, buttons....you name it.... I found so many amazing things and now I'm sitting listening to Britney amongst a pile of swatches the size of Mount Fuji.... But...I'm going to save the fabric market trip for a separate blog as it totally warrants it's own post!!!!
Finally I shall leave you with a picture of the lovely red rose that I got today.....unfortunately this wasn't a gift from a hot boy in a K-Pop band....it was actually handed out as part of a special promo event celebrating 'White Day'....(the follow up to Valentine's Day that they do here!)
Love and Sparkles,
Emma
xxxx

'2013 PLATFORM ACCESS' Preview Exhibition!

Hellooo !!!!! 
So, at the end of last week a new preview exhibition opened here at Incheon Art Platform featuring introductions to the work of the artists in residence who will be based here over the upcoming year. The '2013 Platform Access' Preview opened last Thursday and will run until 26th May, so if you happen to be in town you can pop along and check it out!!! You can see most of the works of both the Korean and International artists in Hall B and I have some digital images showing in Hall A which is open daily 10-6pm!!!! Last Thursday IAP hosted an official opening ceremony for visitors to come and listen to all of the artists introduce their work and afterwards there was a party for everyone to meet each other, the IAP team and fellow artists (which included strawberries in cups and cute biscuits!!!!!).
Also all of the promo materials about the exhibition are here which show all of the artist's work and give a bit of background information about their creative practice! 
You can see a sneaky peek of my stuff in the exhibition catalogue in the photo below (the work featured is my '16th Century Wall Weaver' installation that I produced during my previous residency with 'Guestroom Maribor' in Slovenia)
....and I now have my new business cards for whilst I'm here which even have my name on in Korean characters....yeah, that's pretty exciting!!!!!

It's been really great using IAP as a base to begin my research as it's a really nice environment to 

work in and now I am currently in the process of starting with some textile sampling that I am developing from my research so far....Ok, so I shall leave you with a few photos as it's off to bed for me ready for an early start fabric sourcing tomorrow!!!!

Night Night!!!

Love Emma xxx

The DELIGHT of a Korean Funfair!!!!!

Hellloooooo!!!!!!!!!
It's no secret that I LOVE a good funfair.....back when I was living in Vienna I could be found lurking around the Prater almost every night of the week.....so imagine my happiness when I discovered my first Korean funfair....what's even better is that it's only a short walk away from where I'm living!!!
My main focus whilst I'm based here in the city before I go off site with my project is to really understand and experience the essence of Incheon so my plans at the moment are to take my research all over the city and look at the different areas and districts...
Over the weekend I went to 'Wolmido', or 'Wolmi Island' as it's also known (FYI 'do' means island!). The weather was GLORIOUS to the point I could even ditch my coat! My first port of call was to check out Wolmi Park which is a nice set of traditional Korean gardens and buildings before heading to the Marina and 'Wolmi Culture Street'.

The island has a huge, colourful fairground which was my main reason for going....it was awesome and there was even a 'TAGADA'!!!There was loads of cute couples there on dates, eating candyfloss and plenty of families and people fishing on the nearby rocks!Tonnes of rides, snack stalls, arcade games and kiosks selling rainbow coloured balloons and foil toy windmills!!! Super loud K-Pop playing from every speaker going and a zillion fish restaurants!
The marina looks out over the sea so there was lots of boats coming in and out and as it was the weekend the place was rammed!
It's interesting to see that no matter where you go in the world that funfairs are much of a likeness only with their own bit of 'local~ness'....so in Vienna there was the Käsekrainer and here they rock out the long skinny bits of dried squid?!?!
Erghhhh...it was awesome...I totally want to go there EVERY day!!!! Ok...so a few photos of the delights....

After I'd eaten so much candyfloss and fried sweet potato products that I felt sick, I took a venture through the backstreets into the residential areas and found some really cool stuff.... the local housing areas are really quiet and I noticed that people had 'customised' their houses?!?! On the outside walls of their homes people had painted them all muliti-coloured, with cartoons and murals, totally AMAZINGGGG!!!!!! Someone had even painted a 'Rugrats' picture!!!!

I really like that everyone makes their homes so personal...and I loved that even the quiet back streets were so fun and colourful!...I even found a graveyard of old fairground rides in someone's back garden!!!!
There was also a scenario when I was on my way back to Incheon....I popped into the 'Traditional Culture Display' and next thing I knew, a woman was dressing me up in full traditional Korean National Dress!!!! Robes....wig....everything and a few 'special poses'.....what a beaut....I'll be keeping those photos to myself thanks~sorry ha ha!!!
Anyway....so that's all for now about my fairground adventures...no doubt I will be going back for more Korean Seaside fun...ermmmm more than a few times!!!!!
Love and Sparkles,
Emma xxxx

 

Palaces and Sunsets in Seoul!

Hellloooo!!!
I ventured into Seoul a couple of days ago for the first time....it's a ride away on the subway so pretty convenient for me to get in and out of the city.... I was so excited to go and visit the royal palaces and my first stop was to Gyeongbokgung. It's a huge complex so I ended up spending the majority of my time there as there was so much to see as well as watch the changing of the guards in their colourful robes! I LOVED it here and it was such a sunny day so it was lovely to just wander around! Afterwards I began with my research and visited the National Folk Museum before checking out the Open Air Exhibition which has a set of old houses and shop fronts demonstrating various things like a vintage magazine shop and a barbers! The Folk Museum had lots of textiles on display and traditional clothing so that was really great to see!!! Afterwards I headed to the Dongdaemun area where I ended up roaming around FOREVER! It's a big shopping area so there are underground markets, arcades and and a multiplex full of clothes, shoes, accessories, fabrics...pretty much anything you could ever want!!! It is also in this area where they have the tailors that make bridal wear and the traditional Hanbok so I spent some time looking at the materials they use and checking out all the amazing colours!!! Amongst the side streets I found industrial embroiderers, textile stores and trim specialists so this is going to be quite a useful area for me, so can't wait to go back and explore more and to start sourcing my fabrics for my project! Time flew sooo fast and before I knew it there was a big orange sunset!!!! Super excited to spend more time in the city this week as there are a tonne of places and galleries that I'm looking forward to visiting! Ok, so the sunshine is calling so I will leave you with some photos!
Love and Sparkles,
Emma
xxx

Hello from Korea!!!!!

Oooohhh Hiya!!!!
So earlier in the week I arrived in South Korea where I will be based for the next 3 months working as artist in residence and developing a whole new bunch of work... The programme is operated by Incheon Art Platform and will involve me engaging in a community and culture influenced project which also includes field research and in situ development of a new series of wearable art works. Right now I am currently based at IAP in the city and later on during my residency I will go off on adventures and experience island life Robinson Crusoe styleeee!!!

Incheon Art Platform is a cultural arts complex located in the lovely sea port city of Incheon and the residency is implemented and supported by the Incheon Arts and Culture Foundation. I LOVE the centre as it's all based in a cluster of 13, restored 1930's buildings so there are galleries, performance theatres, archive resources, artist studios and an education hall all on site so it's an awesome creative environment! There are both 
International and Korean artists based here so there is a lot going on, exhibitions and events galore, so it's an amazingggg place to get going with my project. Super excited about getting started with my new works and can't wait to branch out to embrace island extravaganzas!!!
Over the upcoming week I will be focusing on the aspects of my project that look at Korean culture by researching heritage crafts, the local textile industry and National dress. SUPER excited about learning more about traditional Hanbok and the materials that they use so that's whats going down on the agenda over the next few days!!!

I'm really enjoying being here in Incheon, it's a great city with a lot going on and the history of the place is fascinating so there is a lot to take in alongside settling in, in Korea. At the moment there are 3 other international artists in residence here so it's so much fun to check out the city together either supermarket hopping or going to random places with umbrellas on the ceiling to drink makgeolli! Also imagine my joy when we discovered the purikura machines up some back alley and we also ended up accidentally gatecrashing a dance class full of body poppers throwing out the moves to a bit of K-Pop~what a corker!!! There are so many things that I love about the town, one of my favourites being the Sinpo traditional market which is like a magical arcade full of street vendors, fruit and veg stalls, piles of kimchi and also a shop that has really cute socks!

Chinatown is just around the corner from the artist's guesthouse and it's all colourful and sparkly with plenty of places selling bubble tea which makes me sooo happy!!! Also at the back of the complex is Jayu Park and Palgakjeong Pavilion which is lovely to walk around both in the day to get a view over the port and by night when they have some light installations~there are also lots of ginger cats roaming around up there so obviously I am LOVING this!!!!
Ok, so there are a million more stories to tell and about a zillion photos that I have taken since arriving but I will space them out so it doesn't go into overload!!!!
Right now I've just got home from Seoul so I'm looking forward to getting my slippers on and drinking a sweet potato latte whilst making a start on some embroidery!!!!!Totally my new favourite drink EVER!!!! So I will leave you with some photos and will unleash all of the Seoul juice and other recent joys soon!!!!!
Love and Sparkles,
Emma xxx

Updates and Kimchi Calling!!!!

Oooooooh hiya!!!
So I have been totally hopeless in updating my blog recently.....oooppps! The past couple of months have been busy wrapping up some work and preparing for my upcoming projects....
My most exciting gossip is that I am just about to travel to South Korea for the first time... so let the packing commence! Some time ago I received the wonderful news that I had been awarded a spot as artist in residence for a project through Incheon Art Platform. Having followed their endeavours over the years, I'm massively excited to have the opportunity to get involved and of course to seek some new creative inspiration in new surroundings during my visit to South Korea. I'll be whipping out an update on the full content of my research and projects and of course to keep you in the loop with my daily experiences and gossip, so watch this space!
In other news my collaboration with the wonderful designer, Helen Rochfort, was recently featured in Women's Health Magazine...so you can spot our 'Owl-a-Rama' handbag in the shoot below!!!

You can get your hands on our bag at Helen's online store HERE!!!!
Other recent happenings include some of my work being shown as part of the 'Suzuki Fashion Theatre', styled by Karl Willett, during 'Clothes Show Live' at Birmingham NEC back in December.... There was also a lovely round up of my work on the Clothes Maiden which you can have a read at HERE!!!
Alright so packing and sorting out my roots are now on the cards...so I'll leave it at that...but I shall be back with more juice from the magical lands of Kimchi and Bungeoppang pronto!!!!
Love and Bibimbap,
Emma xxx