Art and Architecture in Seoul

Day four in Seoul.  After a slow morning, Heather and I finished walking around the shops on Insadong street.  One of my favorite areas was the Ssamzie-gil complex:

Ssamzie-gil is an open air courtyard surrounded by shops built along a ramp that gradually winds up four levels.  The shops sell very nice, locally made traditional and modern items ranging from shoes to soap to music boxes.  I loved the creative use of yarn and foam to decorate the ramp on one side of the courtyard.

Shops, ramp walkway, and yarn decor behind me,
courtyard below.

At the top of the ramp was an area covered in tags with hand written messages.  I didn't leave a love note for Chris because I left a love lock at Namsam a couple of days earlier.  Only one gimmicky gesture of love is tolerable.

Thousands of messages.

Hopefully the cartoon couple is saying something nice.

The only kind of graffiti I saw in Seoul.

Insadong also features many small art galleries.  It was so relaxing to walk around the shops and galleries to look at the eclectic mixture of artwork.

I bought a small piece of art by this man.  His name was Kim.

Insadong was one of my Favorite places in Seoul.  It was so easy to lose track of time wandering around the shops and galleries, eating street food, and watching the sights on the street.  I am so glad Heather picked an apartment just a couple of blocks from this area because I was able to experience the area early in the morning when the shops were just opening, during the afternoon in the midst of snow flurries, and during the night time bustle.

Street cart on Insadong.

View of Insadong street.

Psy visits Insadong.

Heather and I returned to our apartment for lunch and then headed to the Leeum-Samsung art museum. 

Museum Entrance.

The museum consists of three wings: (1) a wing dedicated to traditional Korean artifacts, (2) a wing dedicated to modern and contemporary art, and (3) a traveling exhibition wing.   I spent quite a bit of time looking at the Celadon pottery in the traditional art wing.  Celadon pottery has a jade hue and several of the pieces dated back to the 12th century.

A set of makeup jars, one of my favorite pieces.

A large spiral stairwell winding down four floors separated the traditional wing from the modern wing.  At the top was a skylight, and the bottom opened up to the main lobby.   

From above.

From Below.

I visited the traveling exhibit last, which was located in this space:   

Designed by Rem Koolhaas.

The traveling exhibit was several oversized black and white photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto.   The black and white photography matched the space perfectly.

Outside the museum is a sculpture area.  I liked the changing reflection of the dense hillside surrounding the courtyard as viewed in a large sculpture of metal spheres. If you look closely, you can see me in a white jacket taking the pictures.   

The three wings were designed by different architects, which gives the museum an interesting look. The brown circular portion of the building is the oversized spiral stairwell.  It connects the modern wing, on the right, to the traditional wing, the brown building in the back on the left.  The wing featuring the traveling exhibit is the glass area on the far left.

The large building behind the museum is a hotel.  A wooden walkway along the hillside connects the hotel to the busy streets below.  The wooden walkway provides a nice view of the city over the nearby rooftops.

For dinner, Heather and I walked to a Mediterranean restaurant in Itaewon, an area popular with expats.  There was some interesting architecture in Itaewon, and we even saw a nice red sunset.

As Heather and I were walking in Itaewon, I told Heather I was craving a soft, warm cookie fresh from the oven.  Heather told me that we were in the only place in Seoul, the area inhabited by foreigners, that sold exactly what I was craving.  Within minutes we were standing outside a window looking at big, warm cookies.  Heather's knowledge of Seoul really impressed me, and I was so glad to have her as a guide.  My white chocolate chip, dried cranberry cookie was a good way to end the day.