My name is Leah Yochman, and my best friend, Emily Rake, and I want to travel to Seoul, South Korea this year. We are interested in an art residency in October and in moving there in January to teach English, but before that, we would like to travel there to experience the art scene there firsthand and immerse ourselves in the culture to get a feel for it. Between the two of us, we are currently working 5 jobs and are interviewing for more to save up to make these dream come true, but we need every bit of help we can get.
We have been heavily influenced by the Pop-y and playful style of South Korea advertising as well as other aspects of South Korean culture. Art is a language we use to communicate with others. By immersing ourselves directly into that culture and interacting, while there, with other South Korean artists we hope to more deeply explain the overlaps between American and South Korean culture. We feel this will enrich our work. Continuing to work together as a partnership would benefit our collaborative art making by developing a long-term art partnership. We will be continuing our conversations in the collaborative work we intend to do in the future. We also want to move to South Korea to start our career there so this experience would be amazingly helpful for making connections and branching out in the art world.
We have been corresponding with two pen pals who live in Seoul, South Korea, their names are 여수빈 (Subin) and 레위 (Levi), they have been a huge help to us and we have built a strong friendship over the past 8 months. We were introduced to Subin and Levi through a application which pairs people trying to learn each others languages, so they have been helping us develop our Korean while we helped them further develop their English. They also share a strong love of art and we all share similar interests. 여수빈 will be picking us up from Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea upon our arrival in October. We will be staying in a bustling arts district where we will be able to go to multiple different galleries and see street art, artist, and performances.
We have both investigated and have been inspired by Korean television, commercials and multiple artists. The way that Korean television and commercials are produced and edited has influenced us both. South Korean ads use pop music, animated elements on top of the footage of live actors, and enthusiastic and exaggerated acting, which we are inspired by. All of these different styles of work have been very influential on the different aspects of our personal art practices. It pushed us to think outside of the box with our ideas and what we are capable of doing while still being able to captivate our viewers in a playful experience.
*the pictures old sorry!!
