Olympic Park

As I've said before, I don't believe I've done Olympic Park justice. As you can see from this map, the South half of the park is buildings built to house the 1988 Olympic Games. They North half, however, is all trials, picnic areas, and scenic views. I live five minutes by foot away from this world class location, so spending time there is pretty easy and enjoyable. In addition, I don't feel out of place taking pictures here because even the Koreans take pictures. It's like a zoo of modern art.



This is one of my favorite ensembles. You sit in a traditional Korean pavilion at the top of a small hill on the water and look out on this. There is a lake full of these wind powered scissor sculptures that just spin and blow in the wind. Whoever came up with it had a knack for the comical and fun. It's great to just sit and watch them all spin around and around, and luckily it stays fairly windy here. They are so dynamic!








If your sculpture can't stand on it's own, you need to redesign your sculpture.













A lot of the work is just part of the landscape. Kids will be playing on it like it's jungle gym equipment. It's all right off the path and in the grass, and there are benches near at hand always. Everything is very pedestrian and family friendly. There are the occasional drink machine, but tastefully done. The park isn't covered in trashcans and water fountains, so it remains very natural looking.






My favorite pieces in the park are the ones of epic size. I like 'em towering and I like 'em modern. There are plenty of smaller works and plenty that look more organic, but I don't really have an eye for that kind of art.










Here's one that's just stuck in the middle of the gymnasiums on the south side. Most of the bigger stuff was placed here because their is much more room. This guy looked cool from every angle: it was hard to find the best one.












Ah, that's why the Koreans are so prosperous....they just throw it all up at once! There were several other cranes that I couldn't capture in the frame. If some of my pictures of Korea make it look really new, that's because it is. Seoul as it stands today is about 60 years old, though it's been the capital city for almost 600. Koreans are very proud of the fact that they came from nowhere at the end on WWII to being the third most populous urban area in the world.









For those of you who don't know, that says KOREA!!













There are plenty of places that were just fields, but this was the only one that had this wheat-like reed. There were benches in the middle of this tall grass....I don't know how you get to them or why you'd want to sit there with the plants sticking up through the slats~~



There are lots of places within the park where there aren't any buildings covered with Korean, any strange looking cars, maybe an Asian or two but you can totally ignore it and pretend you're somewhere comfortable like north Campus. Most of the trees are the same, the grass is the same, the sky is bluer but we have our occasional blue days too. That may be my favorite part about the park: I can sit and escape the overwhelming qualities of the rest of life.






This was the inside of a building in the park. They built it over some ancient dwelling sites that they found within the park during excavation. There were four sites from different time periods that kind of overlapped just within this small building.









This is the giant red swoosh near the park entrance. I think it's got class, and did I mention that it's HUGE! This one even manages to not need a ton of wires to hold it up.






After spending so much time in the park, I've realized that even the isolated places are distinctly non-American after time. It's the little things that give it away. You could wake up in the middle of the park and it wouldn't take but an hour to figure out that it wasn't home. For instance, there isn't a single bug I recognize. The mosquitoes are yellow, seven times natural size, and don't bite. There are cicadas, but in Georgia there's maybe four or five out there. Here there are a deafening dozens!




There are squirrels, but those are a chocolate brown to our grey. They aren't fluffy either, but look sleek, sinewy, almost mongoose-esque. They have fluffy tails and still act a fool, but they're still noticeably different. There aren't any familiar birds either, just Korean magpies and cranes everywhere. That one'll shock you time and again. "Hey a crane! Hey another one!"





Another epic piece of art. A lot of it was either about the Olympics, or about Korean culture. This one had something to do with North Korea I believe. Look at those colors! That is real, un-photoshopped sky, grass, and tree my friends and it's all like this. I can't wait until fall.






This one was some sort of tribute to a deceased Korean King, I think the one who invented their alphabet. That was kind of a big deal, since everyone was so sick of Chinese and that whole thing not making any sense. (Hey guys, I got an idea. Let's draw a new picture every time we want to write a word. It's brilliant!)


Here's the side view. It was called "Tunnel of Light" There are several on site like this that are a cool combo of organic and very modern and clean. This one is fun from multiple angles.




















Hey look! There are more flags here then when the U.N. has wacky tacky tie day!














This is what all the sidewalks look like in our neck o' the woods.













This is my favorite sculpture of all. It's one of those modern-organic combos. It looks as though they just pealed up the Earth and this is how it happened. There's grass on the top sides of both segments, so it looks like you could fold it back down again and no one would ever know.









"Where Seoul meets body"
-Death Cab for Cutie










Don't ask me what this is, I think they are still working on it. Eventually I believe it will be filled with water and be some manner of active fountain, but until then it just looks like a cluster of the mushrooms that we all love so much over here. Yeah, chrome mushrooms....mmmm.








"With my lightning bolts a'glowing
I can't see where I am
going."
-the Arcade Fire









This is clearly some sort of take on the Korean Flag. You first see it from very are away, but as you get closer you realize that it's not solid by any means, but is instead long tubes or PVC or something that has been colored and then strung to that structure to form a sort of liquid sphere. As it blows in the wind you can see through it at certain points.









More art just in the middle of a public place. This is a bunch of tables and umbrellas (even they are artsy) outside a sort of cafe on the south side of the park. I think there's a fountain a little further down. The place is just rich with art and style.







In the middle of the nature portion of the park there is this giant hill. It's gotta be 60 or 70 degrees straight up. It's not an easy climb and there isn't much up there. They built a path to the top, but it's still like climbing up Stone Mountain. The top of the hill levels out for a while and there are whole walking paths up there. There isn't any sculpture, but you don't need it. From that monstrous hill you can look out on all sides and see the entire park, all of Seoul, the Han river, and the Mountains that surround us.





I sat at the top for a while and looked down on all the large art I had just taken pictures of, at the massive church that we go to, at how close the mountains are to the city, at all the people driving across the all the bridges over the world's largest metropolitan river. The only people up there were a very old couple on one or the other benches. Don't ask me how they got up that hill.



They must still be very spry and limber, because that was a crazy hike. Maybe they live on top somewhere. It was so windy on the ground, and by the time I got to the top of that hill the wind was so bad I was holding my hat on and my Milkis can was blowing away. That couple must have been holding on to the bench, for they looked light enough to go with that wind as well








It's two teeny Asian cars covered in burlap and arranged like some technological beak! SWEET!