“Art is Man’s Nature, Nature is God’s Art” in Busan (Day 248)
I love the quote by Philip Bailey“Art is Man’s Nature, Nature is God’s Art”. In Busan we experienced looking at Man's Art and Nature's Art today.
It’s so great that Tim and I have the same kind of body clocks. We get to bed late, spending time reading, chatting, the odd Sudoku or two, and wake up late, poodling for some time before getting out into the big wide world. Today we visited Busan’s Art Museum. You may have gathered that we like a bit of art. There was a nice exhibition based on artists during the Korean War. A range of styles and some paintings very moving. One room was showing a 1960s film which we watched for a short time. Amazing to see the actors smoking and then throwing the match on the floor of the apartment, then later dropping a wrapper onto the pavement. We are sure that just wouldn’t happen in a film these days. What a change to society thank goodness.
The main part of the museum showed art from the early 1960s to late 1980s. Sadly we were disappointed. There wasn’t one piece of art that we enjoyed looking at. We questioned, what is it about art that we do like? Both of us came to the conclusion that it includes a sense of awe of the skill and talent of the artist. We just didn’t see this here. What are we not seeing? Are we not open to understanding? I do remember just not “getting” Picasso until I went to Museu Picasso in Barcelona and then understood where he was coming from. I love his quote “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
We noticed that there was a children’s art area and as we are children at heart, we went to explore. Ah! That’s better. The first room had works by Hyunjeong Lim called Theatre of the Mind, with fairy elements, images of the artist's experience and memories of certain places. There was a similarity to Salvador Dali where objects were either not what they seem or skewed in some way, but in more of a brighter and childlike manner. Some of the paintings didn’t have a title so we had great fun created titles ourselves. The next room an installation by Jinkung Chong called Dot Dot Dot Theatre. The room was a totally white canvas with a white sofa, and wardrobe and lots of projectors hanging from the ceiling. These projected neon line drawings that decorated the room, such as a vase of flowers growing, moving patterns on the sofa, a TV and a huge “picture” on the wall. Wonderful, such fun and so cleverly done. Phew – it was worth coming in the end.
As normal, it was food time and we located online a Sushi Bar within walking distance of our apartment. We finally found it, walked in to find that they had just started their break. The elderly lady must have seen the disappointment on our faces and beckoned us to sit down. We quickly ordered some sushi and rolls and immediately some finely shredded cabbage and mayo arrived, followed by miso soup. Next came 10 beautifully made sushi rolls filled with crab meat, avocado, cucumber and shrimp tempura. Oh my! They were out of this world!! Really we didn’t need the 10 pieces of sushi that came next. Heaven!
We made our way back to the apartment with extremely full bellies. Tim slept whilst I watched a video and then time for coaching. I have a few more clients at the moment which is lovely and seems to work just fine. The internet works brilliantly here – very fast broadband speed.
In the evening, we caught the train two stops and found the train track that has been turned into a pathway which our host Im Soon showed us on our first day here. A very relaxing stroll, chatting away about life with a wonderful orange and red sunset over the harbour to our right and lush vegetation covering the steep hill on our left. We came to an opening with a large wooden hut with a wide window taking advantage of this incredible view. How wonderful to be able to live in such an idyllic location. It reminds me of the quote by Philip Bailey “Art is Man’s Nature, Nature is God’s Art”. Mmmm…I haven’t picked up my paintbrush for a long time.
