Random Art in Seoul

No traditional Korean art today - but my sightseeing in Seoul is continuing to yield some treasures. After all, a city where the main mosque is surrounded by transgender nightclubs has to be very exciting.

It's 2AM on Sunday, September 28th, local time right now, but I have trouble sleeping, so I am blogging instead.

Two days ago, I visited an 800-foot tall hill to the south of downtown, smack in the middle of the city, to enjoy the rare smog-free view of the city from a television transmission tower; the observatory is another 300 feet above the summit. After the tower visit, I could find a temporary exhibit of 20 painted hearts.

The above one is for DiAnne. It has a turtle, as well as an ostrich.

Here's another one, painted with a world map. I'm looking at the Pacific Ocean; DiAnne, I can see you somewhere on the right side!

Yesterday was spent in a newer section of the city, at Olympic Park, which hosts many facilities used during the 1988 Summer Olympics, exactly 20 years ago today. It has 218 sculptures, created by artists from around the world for the Olympics.

This example is by a German named Gunther Uecker, and is titled "Knife Sculpture." The point: human activities are damaging the Earth, as symbolized by four knives cutting into the Earth through gravity.

Here's another one. It's by a Russian named Lazar Gadaev, and titled "Runners." I am sharing this because I thought Christy would love the big manhood hanging on the runner on the right. (Though I am sure that Mann Coulter's is even bigger.)

Remember that this was 1988, when Russia was still the USSR, and didn't have diplomatic ties with South Korea. In 1988, the USSR won the Olympic medal count here, in its final Olympic appearance. However, by 1990, South Korea's President met with Mikhail Gorbachev in San Francisco, leading to diplomatic relations - and a second meeting in Moscow in the same year.

The Olympic Park is formed around a 2,000-year-old earthen fortress, the first capital of the kingdom of Baekje, which lasted from 18 BCE to 660. The capital sat here until being sacked in 475 and moved south. That grassy hill with trees on it is actually the wall of the fortress, worn down smooth over the past two millennia. Baekje actively traded with its rivals within Korea, as well as with Chinese and Japanese nation-states. It is credited with introducing Buddhism to Japan, and influencing much of the development of early Japanese civilizaton. In fact, when Baekje fell, some of its people formed a new kingdom in Japan. Remember that there was no unified Japan until about 1590!

I loved this park, which reminded me of New York's Central Park and London's Hyde Park at times.