2

6PRODUCED BY / Joe WabeEDITORS/ Amy Badenhorst, Lorryn Smit, Frank McKinleyART DIRECTOR/ Joe WabeCONTRIBUTING WRITERS/ Kate Jarocki, Daniel Luzio, Ashe Middleton, Amy Badenhorst, Lor-ryn Smit, Dirty1CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS/ Paul Mossine, Hector Kim, James Guinevan, Michael Roy, Jason Blair Kelly MEDIA & DISTRIBUTION/ , Lorryn Smit, Jane Moon ADVERTISING/ Joe WabePRINTING/ Jane Moon WEBSITE/ artelemento.comEMAIL/ email@artelemento.com

SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THE VENUES THAT HELP US DISTRIBUTE AE:

USquare Holiday Inn The First AlleyThe German BarTop BookstoreSpeakeasyGIC CenterFirst Nepal

So we took a break for 3 months? The only way to get the clarity you need to move forward is by doing the counterintuitive thing: Taking a break.

We are back this month with a book full of creative ideas, inspira-tion, and diversity. It will read better with a glass of your favorite brain motivational drink. Just a quick ride that will start with a photo journey in middle America, Dustin Hoffman, turn left to Ireland, next Bill Cosby, a few birds, then up to the Universe and then down very low to a Scandal. It won’t stop there... Take another sip...

How we use our brains is not only crucial to our survival, it also determines whether we succeed or fail. Daily inspiration is vital to stay focus, and to keep a healthy brain. Remember you are hold-ing in your hands a piece of history. History that was written in Gwangju. Get inspired. Get creative. Enjoy nueve.

Cover design by Michael Roy

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE WHO HAS FURNISHED INFORMATION AND MATERIALS FOR THIS ISSUE. UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ARTISTS FEATURE IN ART ELEMENTO RETAIN COPYRIGHT TO THEIR WORK. WE WILL BE PLEASED TO CORRECT ANY MISTAKES OR OMISSIONS IN OUR NEXT ISSUE. WE WELCOME EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS; HOWEVER, RETURN POSTAGE MUST ACCOMPANY ALL UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, ART, DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIAL IF THEY ARE TO BE RETURNED. NO RESPONSIBLITY CAN BE ASSUMED FOR UNSO-LICITED MATERIALS. ALL LETTERS WILL BE TREATED AS UNCONDITIONALLY ASSIGNED FOR PUBLICATION AND COPYRIGHT PURPOSES AND SUBJECTS TO ART ELEMENTO’S RIGHT TO EDIT AND COMMENT EDITORIALLY.

Take another sip...

8

10 12

12

16

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Opinions expressed in articles are those of the author. All rights reserved on entire contents. Advertising inquiries should be directed to email@artelemento.com

14 18

8

When I get asked in Gwangju where I’m from I often say, “Do you know Chicago?” Truth is, where I’m from isn’t anywhere near Chicago. But if I say Missouri, the re-sponse is “Ah, is that close to New York or Los Angeles?” Nei-ther. It’s hundreds of miles in distance and in spirit. What it is though is authentic middle America, as good a place as any to observe the hu-man condition.

Paul Mossine

My home state of Missouri has pro-duced extraordinary people like Mark Twain, Walt Disney, Chuck Berry, Count Basie, Langston Hughes, T.S. Eliot, and Harry S. Truman. The Mid-west is a complex place, and I love it. I stayed after high school to study pho-tojournalism, art, and international studies in my hometown.

There are college towns attracting im-mensely talented people from all over the world. The cities may not scrape the skies but they can be as sophis-ticated and ambitious as the coasts. Sharing nearby soil are the sprawling rural areas where proud country folk live. They can be set in their ways but are charming and unashamed, with a deep knowledge of their environment. It’s a place where it’s as easy to spend an afternoon by the creek with a beer and a fishing pole as it is to talk about postmodernism over free-trade coffee at the campus cafe.

These diverse forces in the Mid-West are a big inspiration for my photo-graphic work. I’m not obsessed with the landscape alone. Neither am I purely interested in portraits of the people. How one affects the other is my muse. I’ve found that the photo-graphs that I’m constantly chasing connect an individual’s mood with their environment. I like images that ask why someone acts or feels a cer-tain way. An artist’s voice should go beyond mere representation and begin to pose questions.

In Missouri, people can easily buy a gun at any Wal-Mart. Yet they have to wait until Independence Day to get some harmless fireworks. What does it mean for our society when people be-lieve that patriotism equals support-ing oppressive wars and carrying a concealed weapon? What did it imply when people took to the streets to cel-ebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden, burning images of him and plastering everything with the stars and stripes?What does it mean to be part of a subculture or a minority in a region known for being socially conserva-tive? Having a camera with me has given me the opportunity to learn about other people. Photographing a country music concert can mean meeting grandmothers in cowboy hats or ex-prisoners covered with tattoos. Memorial Day ceremonies might put you in contact with gun fanatics who have never been in the army or with

Can dots of light on a surface reveal some-thing deeper? I’m always trying to pose

those questions when looking at art.

mothers who have grieved for their lost soldier-sons. All these people are just living the way they know how. When they appear before a lens, what can their dress, their stance, and their facial expression say about them and where they are from? Can dots of light on a surface reveal something deeper?I’m always trying to pose those ques-tions when looking at art. The pictures that stay with me longer have an ele-ment of mystery and strangeness. They may make me uncomfortable. They don’t offer up any answers right away. They burn slower. They should be like

poems that demand a second reading. My goal is to create this effect in my photography.

It’s been half a year now for me in South Korea, and I love photograph-ing here. There’s lots of beauty and complexity. I’m not sure if pictures can give any real truth about a place or its people. But being away from the Mid-West has made me realize how long I’ve been documenting “home.” I just know that when you’re tired of words and facts, it’s art that can give you the poetic insight you feel when you’re there.

www.paulmossine.comwww.pvmphotography.blogspot.com

10

I have long been a curious wanderer, and traveling has thus been a big part of my identity and lifestyle. From the penguin colony in Si-mon’s Town, South Africa to the heavenly island Samosir in Indone-sia, I have spent many years of my life photographing mesmerizing beauties around the world. And, the people I met on the journeys have given me a different set of eyes each and every time.

Hector Kim

The compilation series “Imagined Nostalgia” is a reflection of my on-going artistic pursuit of both memory-collecting and memory-making. Life is a journey full of memories. We find meanings in not only recalling some from the past but also making some for the future. Neither the memories from the past nor the memories-to-be are any less precious than the oth-ers. And, I am grateful that I can share some of mine as well as those of the viewers through photography, beyond time and space.

“I haven’t told the half of what I’d seen.” - Marco Polo

Hector Kim is a Korean-born Ameri-can fine art photographer who now shares his time between Seoul, Bang-kok and Stockholm. Born and raised in Seoul, Kim moved to the U.S. as a teenager. Along his first car, a 35mm Asahi-Pentax, which Kim’s father had used for forensic photography, was passed down to the young Kim. The three soon became best friends and traveled across North America, and it shaped the later years of Kim’s life as a nomad artist.

Until leaving the U.S. for gradu-ate school education in Europe and round-the-world journeys, Kim en-joyed his career as a commercial vid-eographer / photographer. Kim filmed and photographed many celebrities in Hollywood including the Dustin Hoffman family, Don Henley of the Eagles, and the Katzenberg family of Dream Works, and he also created promotional films and online contents for fortune 500 corporate clients like Samsung, Canon and NBC.

Hector Kim shares with the viewers his photographs and films on his web-site and Facebook fan page:

http://www.hkim.comhttp://facebook.com/HectorKimPic-tures

Life is a journey full of memories. We find meanings in not only recalling some from the past but also making some for the future.

12

James GuinevanI create work that explores my relationship with the world around me and how it affects me mentally and physically. My work often melds unrelated imagery together or is an image within an image, sometimes straightforward but other times abstract and random.Before approaching a work I will usually come upon the idea whilst out and about doing other things, I sketch that idea down as a basis for the finished image and then when I begin my work I don’t nec-essarily stick to the original sketch I often deviate a bit adding what will better get the idea across and leaving behind what is holding it back.

I work this way so that the creativ-ity retains a freshness and energy, elements which are important in an artwork. I graduated with a degree in printmaking in 2003 but now I work mostly in pen and ink, sometimes in oils and other mediums and work at a slow pace due to the intricacy of the work. The majority of my works are in black and white as influenced by my printmaking background, I am not against the use of color but feel that it can blind the image and take away from the mood I am trying to convey.

I have had a number of exhibitions internationally in South Korea, America as well as my home country Ireland with contributions to maga-zines home and abroad. Most recently I participated in exhibitions in Mokpo and Jeonju in South Korea as well as creating the cover for a horror anthol-ogy called wire and gas by abandoned comics in Ireland.My current project is a solo effort, a comic book influenced by the writer H.P Lovecraft which I hope to release later this year.

I began creating art from a very early age ,basically as soon as I had a crayon in hand and was busy drawing

https://www.facebook.com/#!/sirenhillartshttp://www.redbubble.com/people/sirenhillhttp://www.saatchionline.com/howl

14

My name is Michael Roy, and I like to draw. So much so that I’ve been drawing every day for a long time. My dad used to tell me when I was young that my character was nothing more than the habits that I would go out and keep… this naturally made me pretty nervous to develop any. I started drawing when my mom ordered me the VHS to Bill Cosby’s Picture Pages from the QVC Home Shopping Network. It came with a pen named Mortimer that squealed when you wrote with him. When I noticed that drawing was becoming a full-blown habit, I thought my dad might prefer it to smoking.

Michael Roy

My habits led me to receive a Bach-elor in the Fine Arts with a Minor in Art History from the Memphis College of Art in Tennessee. From those years I developed a strong af-finity for hand mixed oil paints, tra-ditional solvents, and hand made canvases. I had a sort of Puritanical worth ethic that equated difficulty and anachronism with value back then. I blame that on my regional heritage.

Korea, and the somewhat isolated life of being the foreigner have emptied my artwork away from the academic conversation about art. I guess what I heard but didn’t really get before Korea was that art and the process of mak-ing art are only vessels for a content that’s in constant flux. Making things out of paint and ink is more or less compulsive for me but the contents depend on my present circumstances. Art is like a Teflon storage bowl that can be purchased from QVC.. But like your groceries, the content has to be replaced when it starts looking over ripe. My work couldn’t be about the parlor games of academic life once I moved to the ROK ; those things were no longer eatable.

For me this has been point of great relief. The sudden contrast of para-digms made me accept that there is no quintessential content or genre for art. Art is my little mental exercise for the present. There is no great culmina-tion in the future, and no grand goal or finish life for me to cross; I make art solely because it makes me present of my presence.

Process wise I work really fast. I really admire people who can sit and medi-tate on a line or a hand for hours on end to achieve subtle delicacies… But that’s certainly not me. I usually jug-gle an image in my head for a few days before I figure out how I want to do it, and after that, the actual drawing time is usually within a sitting. I feel that for my work, the quicker I finish, the better chance that the audience will respond to the life of the piece. The

longer I sit there prodding it to act how I want, the more it rises up to defy me.

Lately if I’m not working digitally, I’m painting with watercolors on top of traditional Japanese and Korean ink. Almost all of my works these days are started with brush and ink. I’m influ-enced by the more traditional Korean and Japanese painters: Kim Hong Do, Yi Ahm, Shin Yun Bok, Katsushika Hokusai, and Shibata Zeshin to name a few. Their airiness and speed appeals to my growing claustrophobia of me-dium mashing. I also like how their styles are immediately recognizable, and insist upon the content as much as the imagery they’ve chosen.

Being outside of the United States has made it an easy point of discussion in my work. I sometimes take imagery from current news or from my memo-ries growing up in the United States. From these I can light them from hindsight or a distanced perspective. Those pieces are like detritus left out on the hangover of Generation Y, a generation raised within an economic boom with the presumption that it could last forever.

michaelroyart.com

16

A few months ago, the founders of the group decided to tap into the talent of Gwangju’s expat community in a different way. They held a contest for local writers to submit their original one-act plays, and gave some criteria for writers to follow to make the pro-duction cohesive. Of all the wonderful submissions they received, six were chosen to be produced by the group and performed on stage in Gwangju. Auditions were held, rehearsals tran-spired, characters came to life, and in December 2012, the following six plays appeared on stage for the first time. Ever.

We were thrown into it from the very beginning upon witnessing a murder scene come to life. In Denmark Kills, written and directed by Adam Hogue, Denmark finally met the Naomi Win-ter, and just when they hit it off and things were going well, he murdered her. Unable to remember his actions, it took her proving it to him for Den-mark to see the light.

Next we saw The Worthingtons, writ-ten by Greg Narajka and directed by both Greg Narajka and Bethany Haizlett. It was a clever play about a dimwitted presidential candidate on election night. In this story, we saw

The Gwangju Performance Project has just completed its fourth production, Six Plays, Four Nights, One Couch, which just might have been its most successful yet. After producing plays by ac-claimed playwrights Steve Martin, Tom Stoppard, and David Ives, who knew that a night of locally produced playwrights would blow our minds?

Six Plays, Four Nights, One CouchAnd a few birds. Did we mention that?

Performing Arts

I’ve always believed that live theatre, in all its artistic, quirky, and delightful bril-

liance, is something truly magical

By Kate JarockiSix Plays, Four Nights, One CouchAnd a few birds. Did we mention that? just how unconventional families can

be, and how sometimes, Belgian spies have nothing at all to do with the de-mise of one’s dream.

Wrapping up the first set was Beyond the Frontier II, a dramatic play written by Ji Eun Kim and directed by Angie Hartley. This play, which incorporated two striking interpretive dance pieces, explored the self-struggle of one man’s contentedness to stay where he was or to listen to a friend and follow the light towards change.

After intermission, we came back to Squinness. And Height. Flyneiken. And… a platypus? In Flightless, writ-ten by Zak Cates and directed by Travis Major, we saw the hilarious in-terspecies examination between birds and mammals. If you weren’t rolling in your chair on this one, you should fly home immediately and see an or-nithologist.

Next brought Christmas in Strange-land, written and directed by Laurence Berridge. It portrayed entertaining in-teractions between friends, acquaint-ances, and waiters, and the importance of storytelling – and listening – at Christmas.

Ending the night was Spare Change, written by Kate Jarocki and directed by Travis Major. This amusing play exam-ined miscommunication at its finest, as well as the frustrations in wanting to help others but continuously failing miserably. With each of the four shop

customers making cameos as char-acters from the previous plays, Spare Change turned six individually writ-ten plays into one cohesive night of performances.

I’ve always believed that live theatre, in all its artistic, quirky, and delightful brilliance, is something truly magi-cal. When a project that has survived months of dedication and hard work finally gets into the spotlight, literally, and is seen by our family, friends, and even complete strangers just wanting an escape, the idea of ‘theatre as mag-ic’ becomes tangible. And when all of this transpires within an international community in a land foreign to most of us, it is nothing short of enchanting, indeed.

Quite.

The talent and dedication of the local writers, directors, actors, and produc-tion crew alike has once again proven that despite language and cultural bar-riers, technical obstacles, and almost any other kind of hurdle there is, bar-riers can be broken and amazing stuff can happen.

I hope you were as inspired by Six Plays, Four Nights, One Couch as we were, and if theater is your thing, we welcome you to join the group in working toward future performances. All we require is the willingness to try something new, and the motivation to see it through.

18

The awe-inspiring sight of a sky full of stars can render us speech-less—and understandably so. Two very different entities are in-volved, and they’re both rather mysterious. Albert Einstein said “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.” For thousands of years art-ists and scientists have created stories or images about the sky and its constellations to explain our vast universe. Art Elemento recently interviewed business owner by day and Astrophotographer by night Jason Kelly about his love for photographing the dark skies!

Jason, please tell us more about your-self and how you came to Gwangju. As with many foreigners I came to Korea initially to teach English, fell in love with the culture and have been living in Korea for the past 12 years. I have a wonderful wife, Jeha and a beautiful daughter, Anna and a son soon to be born in March of this year. My wife and I run an English language school here in Gwangju.

How did you become interested in As-tronomy?

When I was a boy my father used to tell me about different constellations and certain stars and that initially sparked an interest in astronomy. After gradu-ating from university I bought my first telescope which opened up my eyes to all the wonders of the night sky. That

first small telescope helped me learn the night sky and certainly was impor-tant in developing my further interest in astrophotography.

There is an established group of Astro-photographers in Gwangju. How did that come about?

A few years ago I was wondering if there were any other like-minded people interested in astronomy in Gwangju and if there was an astron-omy club. So I decided to do some research online and found out that in-deed there was a new astronomy club in Gwangju. After contacting them they invited me to join them under the dark skies of Young-gwang About 40 minutes drive from Gwangju. I had re-cently upgraded my telescope and was very happy to join a group of people

who also had similar interests. . Some of the members decided to begin dab-bling in astrophotography. After see-ing some of their beautiful images I decided to give it a try myself. Since that time I have been trying to develop my proficiency in astrophotography and trying to take different kinds of pictures whether it is wide field images such as large constellations or narrow field images of planets, the moon, star trails and the like. Now we meet regu-larly whenever the sky is clear!

Astrophotography has evolved into an art where pictures are being displayed in museums such as the Royal Muse-um in London and the National Mari-time Museum in Sydney. How would you describe your art of photography?When I first began doing astrophotog-raphy, I didn’t think of it that much has

The Art of Astrophotography

by Amy Badenhorst

20

an art form however over the years I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of some of the pictures I’ve been able to capture and have come to truly appreciate it as a unique and very beautiful form of expression. As with most artists, I’m sure that when they create their work they hope to capture an image that sparks intrigue and appreciation to the viewer. When I’m setting up my im-ages I am always trying to think about the best perspective as well as other elements including what is in the fore-ground and background because these are all important in creating an image that is aesthetically pleasing.

Elaborate on some of the equipment you use

Most people think that Astrophotog-raphy is not possible without a truck load of equipment, but it doesn’t have to be. However if you want to take longer exposures or narrow field im-ages of deep space objects you’ll need quite a bit of equipment. Of course the basics are a DSLR or CCD camera. I prefer a DSLR because it gives you more of a variety of images you can shoot. If you just want to shoot star trails or wide field constellation pic-tures you only need a camera, camera release and a tripod. The same goes for shooting the moon, provided you have a telephoto lens. If you want to take longer exposure images of the Milky Way or deep sky objects you’ll need an equatorial mount which will move your camera in unison with the rotation of the earth so you can take very long exposure images. If you want to take photos of nebulae or star clusters you’ll need a telescope to at-tach to your camera because a normal camera lens will not be able to give you the large magnifications or the aperture required to take pictures of objects that are millions to trillions of kilometers away. A 6” to 10” refract-ing or reflecting telescope is more than adequate to capture amazing images of

most objects in the night sky.

Talk me thru a typical night out with your group of Astronomers?

Well first I have to load up my car with my equipment and get dressed for the weather. These days -10 de-grees at 3am requires lots of extra pad-ding and warm boots. Our club site is about 40 minutes drive from my house so once I get there it takes about 30 minutes to setup my equipment. I have two setups, one for imaging and the other for viewing. Because of the long exposures involved in imaging, you can get bored waiting around so I always setup up another telescope to stargaze while my computerized telescope does the imaging. Once set up I have a look at my star charts to see what would be interesting to shoot and then set my telescope or camera on that patch of sky and program my camera release to take the necessary number of exposures and exposure lengths required for the image I want to capture, then I let the equipment do the rest. While I’m capturing im-ages I chat with the other members and we go around looking through each other’s telescopes at whatever is “up” that night. Our clubhouse is well equipped with heating and coffee and noodles if you get hungry. At our site we have a variety of telescopes ranging from 3” to monster 16-20” telescopes that all give great views of the sky. So we are never bored. Being a member of the Gwangju and Cheollanamdo Astronomy Club (www.astrolove.kr) has helped me make great new friends and continues to fuel my interest in as-tronomy.

Advice for beginners of Astrophotogra-phy?

If you have ever looked up at the sky and thought, wow that would make a great picture, just grab your camera and shoot. Whether it’s the moon or Orion’s belt, just take a picture. I’m sure you’ll be pleased. You don’t need thousands of dollars to get started. Just

go outside the city somewhere, setup your tripod and shoot. The images you’ll get may not be Hubble like, but I know you’ll appreciate them, and who knows, it may spark a lifelong interest in astrophotography, as it did for me. Clear skies!

If you have ever looked up at the sky and thought, wow that would make a great picture, just grab your camera and shoot. Whether it’s the moon or Ori-on’s belt, just take a picture.

22

Day 4Met Morgan, Stuart’s bandmate. Works in a hagwon nearby and they live in the same building. Us 3 Brits! Korea’s full of K-pop. Only “crackers” play real music. So, the market is wide-open and waiting for us. We’re going to hit that gap like a Metallica riff - hard, fast, and painful. We’re called “They” because in music articles, the pronoun (still getting used to this grammar speak - didn’t know I had to actually study for class) is used for any band, so it’ll be like free advertising for us. Very original. Creates a strong sense of identity for us. I suggested “We Three Brits from Orient Are”. Not funny, it seems. I’m going to be the bassist. We met in a bar that a load of foreigners go to. They consume a lot of alcohol, don’t

they? I was impressed by how much Korean the foreigners could speak. Words like waygook and ajuma kept being used. I need to study Korean as well as English just to catch up with these guys! And the bar has a lot of bands on. Morgan wants to get They to play, but he’s a perfectionist - he’s wait-ing for the music to be just right. Did notice a blank CD with “They are shit” written on it in the bin, though. The last 2 words were in different hand-writing. Must be the album name.

Day 36Had an interview with a journalist for the local English language news rag. We didn’t think that our angle of us being the real Korean experience was enough, so went to a supermarket to

buy a load of herbs to put in a rizla to make them look like joints. This lent us credibility. Plus, it helped disguise the fact we haven’t actually played a gig yet. Slow news months are what we need to work. But Stuart didn’t think it looked convincing enough. The herbs didn’t look right, and the smell was wrong. Smelled like Christmas dinner to me, so I thought it was okay. Could have used a bit more sage, though. Journalist thought we were a jazz band when he asked what kind of cigarette it was! When asked to describe our music, we went for a mix of New Or-der, Radiohead and Girl’s Generation. Don’t really know who Girl’s Genera-tion are but it certainly shocked the journalist, which is obviously what we wanted. Thought the Radiohead refer-

Arrived in Korea today. Already in a band! Met a guy called Stuart, also British. He’s a drummer for a band called They. Was very ex-cited. Didn’t see the Hagwon I’ll be working at. Expected to work from tomorrow. Easy though, just talking English, what I’ve done since birth. Now that’s the University of Life! Booze and fags are dirt cheap over here. American bloke heard me, thought I was talking about prostitution! Also cheap. And dirt is an operative word.

ScandalBy Daniel Luzio

Creative Writing

ence wouldn’t be recognised, but he had heard of Creep. Need to go more obscure next time. Oasis, something like that.

Day 52Got a girlfriend! Another Brit. And a virtuoso performer - that’s what Stuart said, anyway. Into bands like Klause Schultze, Neu!, Mogwai, Caspian. She played me some, got bored. Said I’d heard of Kraftwerk. She wasn’t im-pressed. But she is fantastic. I played her one of our demos. She completely re-wrote Morgan’s part. Made it sound awesome. Am looking forward to Morgan hearing it. Though need to be careful, he might be so jealous he’ll steal her from me.

Day 86Geraldine’s in the band. Morgan agreed with Geraldine that my bass was lacklustre. And my performance was sloppy. That I’m not hard enough. Stuart was sniggering, and this only seemed to encourage Geraldine. But she’s in. And I’m in her! Really, really hoping that it’s going to be a boy.

Day 88Geraldine has re-written everything. We’ve even started playing some of her compositions that she’s given to us. Something about them not being very serious, disposable. Stuart said they sounded absolutely sublime. So we punked them right up, and now we sound proper.

Day 93Geraldine’s out of the band. Morgan’s still using her songs. But now it’s totally cool because Morgan has started writ-ing some awesome stuff that sounds a bit like Geraldine. But much, much better. Apparently she is his muse. I was a bit confused about this at first, as she sounds nothing like that band so I asked him about this, and he said that was why she’s out. She’s no longer necessary.

Day 108Geraldine saw us play. We had a whole

Scandal

24

new set. But she complained saying that Morgan stole her music. I defend-ed Morgan, saying I had never heard those songs before. She asked me if I’d listened to the CD she’d made for me when I first met her. I said of course. She’s left me.

Day 124Finally played a set at the foreigner bar. There was a lot of people to see us specifically. And they all booed. Still, it’s exposure. Like publicity, bad word of mouth is …. good word of mouth? Something like that.

Day 130Missing Geraldine so much that I lis-tened to her CD, knowing that the boredom would overpower the sad-ness. All the songs are very familiar though. We use them in our set. Mor-gan said he’d written them. Guess it’s just as well I dumped her if I can’t trust her anymore.

Day 152Stuart died last night. A heroin over-dose. Don’t know how he got his hands on it. A friend of Stuart’s got busted when weed for Stuart was sent to his friend’s address. Poor bugger signed and got immediately arrested by a copper waiting outside as a trap. The scent was picked up by sniffer dogs and Stuart’s friend was deported sometime last year. Grade A heroin is fine to send, it would seem. I don’t feel too bad, though. He died in his sleep doing what he loved.

Day 153Put a message up on the Gwangju page on Facebook announcing Stuart’s overdose. Got 2 replies. I reckon that for every person who posts, there must be at least 500 who don’t post and just read. So, it’s nice to see that Stuart made an impact.

Day 189Kidnapped Geraldine. I was a bit nerv-ous about it, as I haven’t spoken to her

for a while, though we often bump into each other in bars. I’m surprised that she drinks so much considering her condition. But Morgan said it would be a great way us to talk. She’d be a captive audience, as it were. Morgan said she was in on it. Wasn’t too much point in asking Geraldine as she was gagged up. So when the police reports came on TV, it was fun. We’d covered our faces, but recorded ourselves on a phone and leaked it to TV. I was wearing a T-shirt of our band. Great publicity. When the police came, I in-vited them in, thinking this was part of Morgan’s plan. The police recipro-cated, inviting us to stay the night at their place.

Day 311Court case is finished. Thanks to Morgan’s smooth talking, Geraldine lost her case against us. I would have thought she’d look more radiant. She is leaving the country. Apparently being 500 metres away from her at all times is not enough. Different continents is not enough. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. We managed to sell 2 CDs. Publicity was definitely good, but I guess we were too busy with the case to gig and promote ourselves properly.

Day 365The day for me to leave has come. Not officially a deportation - more that I’m unable to get a job. Morgan’s still on trial for Stuart’s murder. Apparently he had smuggled in a load of heroin from Thailand, stuffed up his adult-movie-only pipe. Though we might be able to get a Johnny Cash style live album done now. Morgan had a great idea. Marc Bolan, Jimi Hendrix, Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin. Shame that I’m only 26. Still, in Korea my age is the rock’n’roll year of death. As Mor-gan says, it’s ‘ironic’, so we’ll know the true fans, because they’ll get it. Just posted a note on the internet with a link to our homepage so that people can buy CDs in commemoration.

26

Broken shellhusk of what was left to the earthtiny foot prints grown larger shifting from wreckage to recognitionthere is intimacy in discoveryresounding against other armor

the crumbling defense abandoning of shields a crack not as weaknessbut as a way out a way further inthe newborn has knowing eyes.

current that carriesrefractionthe bullet woundbrilliantin soft fleshheart of a woman upstreamanonymousin the division

to be there when the scar is createdthe core shatteredthe river widenedshards on separate shoresground to sand

waiting for the diamond.

Living sister-side with ancestorshistory with horrorhonorblood

She is stronger than the sweeter lotusmore permanentthan a dragon tattooon a soldier on a son

Here it is vinesInvisible

and deepdeeperthan river muda flashthe arrow from the dark

a warningshe is not asleep

softly…“no more.”

Ashe Middletonhatch on.fire.underwater walking

photography by Joe Wabe

Poetry

walking

If you are reading this article, it means that somewhere in your life someone took the time to teach you how to read. This puts you in a statistical de-mographic called a privileged life. You have probably had something to eat today, used a hygienic toilet facility, been on the internet for no less than 30 minutes, spoken to a friend in another country or city via cell phone or inter-net and brushed your teeth with clean water. We are constantly reminded to be grateful for all the small things we might neglect. But while you are living in a ‘privileged’ society, you will never truly understand what it means to be grateful. Unless you have had to grow up in a concentration camp, being beaten everyday of your life, choosing food over your mother’s life, collect-ing human secretions as fertilizer and then eating your first hamburger or having your first hot shower, will you understand how privileged you really are. This was the case for Shin Dong-hyuk, the only North Korean Refu-gee to survive growing up in a North Korean prison camp and escaping to freedom! His book ‘Camp 14 by Blaine Harden,’ is the inspiration behind Gwangju Rescue Group!

Together with Liberty in North Ko-rea , Gwangju Rescue Groups seeks to raise awareness amongst South Kore-ans and foreigners living in Gwangju,

about the dire circumstances North Korean people are living in today. You might be thinking ‘this has noth-ing to do with me and why should I bother’ but listen: North Korea is widely recognized as the most oppres-sive country in the world! They have no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion. It is illegal to leave the coun-try without state permission. Anybody who tries to form an opposition or show public dissent against the regime are executed and their families send to prison camps. Their rations of food and clothing are determined by their family’s generations before and their faithfulness to the regime. All of this is happening merely 5 hours away from Gwangju!

North Korea is changing and we are part of it! Our awareness efforts exist to redefine North Korea so that public perception will shift from the politics to the people. While helping North Koreans inside the country is difficult, we can reach out to those who have escaped and help bring them to safety and freedom.

Since the famine hundreds of thou-sands of North Koreans have crossed the border into China in desperate search of food, medicine and money. Even now, thousands of North Ko-reans flee their country every year,

escaping from a combination of eco-nomic hardship and political persecu-tion. There are currently an estimated 30, 000 – 50, 000 North Korean refu-gees in China and over 24 000 North Korean refugees have made it safely to South Korea, where they are automati-cally given South Korean citizenship.Gwangju Rescue group is working together to rescue a North Korean Refugee by hosting events in our com-munity. These events will bring the North Korean People to the forefront of a conversation that is often domi-nated by high politics. $2500 is what it takes to rescue one North Korean refugee hiding in China. 100% of the funds our Rescue Team raise are used for their escape to freedom!

Be a part of this revolution by Joining our Facebook page @ Gwangju Rescue Group or emailing us at gwangjures-cue@gmail.comOur mission: redefining North Korea by focusing on the people while rescu-ing and providing resettlement sup-port to North Korean Refugees and pursuing an end to the North Korean Crisis.

A simple act of loveby Amy Badenhorst

Poetry Community

28

Last night, I watched Made in Dagen-ham. When I started the movie, I saw that it was a present day interpreta-tion of a past event. I am not usually one to watch a movie like this. i do not consider myself to be a history buff or even a non-fiction lover. with that being said, this movie might have changed my movie decision making process.

There are many times in life that a per-son might feel less than adequate. it

is not uncommon for a person to feel small and feeble or like their opinion does not matter. This movie could re-ally help someone feeling this way. Made in Dagenham is truly a feel good movie.

I would recommend that anyone who would like to see an entertaining and uplifting movie should check this one out. this is only my opinion, but if you share your opinions with the world, then you might find others feel the same way.

By Dirty1

Made in Dagenham

By Lorryn Smit

So whether you are looking for a way to catch up on the latest Inter-net trends, want to find some exciting new content or are just bored and need to waste some time online, here are some of my discoveries. Depending on your level of Internet usage, you may already know these sites but if you haven’t, chances are you’ll find them cool.

Lauren Marek is a 22 year old lifestyle photographer and has embarked on a unique project where she takes vari-ous macro shots of a person and then sizes each to fit into a grid photo. Each grid features 9 shots. She tries to focus on the one interesting feature on her subjects’ bodies like scars, maybe a unique fingernail and so on. You can view some of her work on her website:

http://www.laurenmarek.com

Award winning photographer Stephen Wilkes has put together an amazing “Day to Night” series of photographs which capture the changing time of day into one scene. Each image was photographed throughout the day and a selection of photos from hundreds taken were blended together to create a very interesting picture.See more of Stephen’s work on his website.

http://www.stephenwilkes.com

It’s that time of year when many have to do some deskwarming and are in need of some websites to kill time… Here’s a really strange one. I’m not completely sure as to what the point of this website is but it’s quite intrigu-ing. Win Butler is singing a song called Neon Bible which is quite creepy BUT you can actually interact with him by clicking the hands and eyes. I thought it was kind of cool (although a little creepy).

http://www.beonlineb.com

Pieces – A unique Photography Project

Day to night pictures For those deskwarmers

WWWELEMENTO

32