I was picked up by Sally (Sunghee) Park, a friend who studied at Monash with me and who ended up becoming my translator and guide for most of the week, at the bus station at 7am.
At lunch I had an appointment made to meet with Jeon Yong-Il, professor of Metalwork and Jewellery at Kookmin University in their design school. We managed a brief chat, but not before I had already run into Han Joo-Hee, a final year student who I had met in Edinburgh at the start of the year, when she was on exchange at the Edinburgh College of Art. (We looked at each other with what must have been similarly puzzled expressions, because on her face I could see “What? How?”, and I’m pretty sure mine would have read much the same.)
So when Professor Jeon said he had to leave, Sally and I corralled Joo Hee again, who kindly agreed to take us on a tour of the school. (The picture I have of her is actually from Edinburgh, as I didn’t end up taking any shots of the school. I was a little sleep deprived…)
The school was abuzz, as they were reaching exhibition time, so there were people and works everywhere. They have good facilities, but they are pretty crammed in to the space that they have, as were the students. It was a hive of activity – undoubtedly very productive.
Professor Jeon’s room was interesting too – he had a computer and desk in the first third of his space, and then a full workshop beyond two screens to separate the work areas. That’s one way to help your academic staff find time and space for their private research.
Sally and I then headed into the city, where she took me to a market for jewellery materials. It’s an indoor market that takes up a floor of a fairly large building, while above and below it are other markets, which occasionally spread into the adjoining building. The ground floor seemed to be manchester and ribbons/thread, then there was more fabric on the next floor, and other levels with other materials. (Despite getting my first full strength coffee in possibly years en route, I still didn’t manage to take any photos. I perked up when we hit the jewellery floor though. So much shiny!)
I did make a few purchases, mostly of different threads. The amount of stuff was incredible – there was stalls for loose beads, others for strung beads, stalls of laser-cut parts in metal and timber, and others for different types and colours of chain. Most of it was non-precious, but it was still incredible to see the variety. I can compare it to the materials hall at Inhorgenta, which was also huge, but which had a little more space (some stalls could be called spartan) and a focus on the precious, whereas this was (once again) jam packed, and seemed to run for miles with only the occasional overlap in what was being sold.We didn’t get in very deep though, so maybe it repeated more further on…
We didn’t have much time as we had a dinner booking, so we headed off again back towards Sally’s neighbourhood, through the sunset.
