New Life: Korea Lantinga Family: Art Museum: Civilizing the Masses

Grieving woman (partially nude); wrestling boys (nude); an abstract sculpture
(very nude and rather graphic from a particular angle, as Sam discovered today);
and butt of family jokes, the elk with a rack of unusual size

Today was our third trip to the Pohang Museum of Steel Art (POMA). It was the first time, however, that it was actually open. Key lesson from this experience: Just because the web says something is open, say, 9-6 every day, does not mean that is true, even if you get a student to translate the Korean and confirm that 9-6 daily are the publicized hours. Apparently, POMA is closed on Mondays. And, for all I know, maybe on alternate Wednesdays or on Buddha's birthday. Ok, maybe it's obvious which stage of "culture shock" I'm in. : )

Today's experience also refutes the wisdom of my mother. She always said (to my great teen-age annoyance) that whatever you see a couple doing in public, you can be sure they're doing much more in private. So, on our previous trips to this nude-and-genitalia steel art all over the POMA lawn, we suspected that what was INSIDE the museum would be even more graphic. So I talked to the kids ahead of time about what we might see and what proper responses would be: slightly squinted eyes, tilted head, thoughtful nodding, perhaps limited chin/beard stroking while contemplating and discussing the underlying symbols and artist's message. We were ready for hard questions....

Nope - not a single nude inside. Some cool pieces, but everyone was clothed. Here are some pix and commentary, probably well off the mark since I haven't had an art class since roughly 5th grade. Also, every sign and guidebook and artists's statement was in Korean. Thus reinforcing lesson #48 of Living in Korea: just because the name of the place is in English and it has English on its website does NOT mean ANYTHING on location is in English or that the people working there will know a word of English.

Ok, here we go, no holds barred: here are my favorites (inside and out) for reasons artsy and juvenile.

A four-sided black box, roughly 6' tall and 8' long hung by a cable from the ceiling
and illuminated from the inside. Human x-rays were cut into seaweed shapes and
colorful fish put on top. In a darkened gallery, this was stunning.

Giant steel mosquito, taller than Nick and Sam. Lovely depiction in itself,
but what we could read on the plaque gave hints of much more:
something about lawyers and the colors of the Cameroon flag. Interesting.

This piece repulsed me, and such a strong emotion
suggests it's an important piece to me somehow.
It's title was something like "Crazy Buggers" and its highly
polished part (see detail) suggests the British
interpretation. The tree-head puzzled me.