Korean Ceramics

Only recently did I learn that the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Hong Kong is actually pretty close to my office, and I never imagined that a ceremics exhibition would be held there. Well, it was, and I went - I thought it would be a delightful stroll during the lunch hour away from the hustle and bustle of the shopping malls below.

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It appears that a Culture Center has been established within the premises of the Consulate to promote Korean arts and crafts, and the exhibition was held in that Center. As the elevator doors opened, I was faced with a guard sitting beside a metal detector, one of those you need to walk through as you go through customs in an airport. I was greeted with, presumably, Korean. Seeing my puzzled face, the guard asked in English what he could do for me. I stated the cause of my visit. He examined my bag as I walked through the metal detector. Security checks passed and I entered the Consulate office.

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It was small, and the Cultural Center was just two office rooms. One of them was a library, in which Korean books were displayed. The ceramics exhibition was in the other bigger room, but somehow the works were rather casually displayed on open tables, with a price marked against the title and the artist's name of each item, in the range of a few thousand Hong Kong dollars. The presentation there did not quite match the artistic mood of the exhibition poster. I finished looking at the exhibition in less than 10 minutes.

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I took a booklet, which contained a beautiful collection of the photographs and detailed descriptions of the exhibits. Browsing through the booklet, entitled "Emanating Grace and Generosity - The Beautiful Story of Korean Crafts", I must say that it did a better job of promoting Korean ceramics than the exhibition itself. I realize how much photography, through the use of lighting and shadows, can help to create an artistic air.

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Impressed indeed by the grace emanating quality of the ceramics, as shown in the photographs in the booklet, I somehow think of Japan Video Topics (日本風情畫). It is a series of programmes produced by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to let foreigners have more understanding of Japanese culture, society, technology, environment and so on. It used to be shown on TV in Hong Kong and, perhaps rather oddly, it was one of my favourite programmes. The tranquil style adopted in those series is strangely akin to the sense of serenity I feel in the ceramics photographs.