The Asian Art Museum’s Hallyu! The Korean Wave (through January 6) makes sure its visitors are well-situated to understand the world’s adoration for the country’s contemporary pop culture. The exhibition opens with the history of Korea from the end of Japanese imperialism to the present day, setting the scene for its popular culture boom. Its eventual explosion brought K-Dramas and Korean cinema to the rest of the world—an installation of the bathroom set from Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, which became the first foreign film to win Best Picture in 2020, here serves as a reminder of their rise.
The show provides a look at fashion with variations of the traditional hanbok clothing—and of course, there’s the K-pop. At the entry to the exhibition, the 2012 video of “Gangam Style” is on loop, the visuals for Seoul emcee Psy’s ditty that you may recall racking up more than 5 billion views on Youtube. Here too are the genre’s tangible signifiers, costumes worn by worldwide favorites BTS and BLACKPINK, light sticks that fans use to signal their favorite bands, a board on which to write messages to one’s idols, and a section where visitors can learn dance moves with a virtual coach, videos of their resulting steps collected and displayed on a wall.
Yoon-Jee Choi, assistant Korean art curator of the Asian Art Museum, says she hears lots of laughter coming from the interactive show.
“I think it’s not only fun but exciting to see people, even those who are very new to K-Pop, having a hands-on experience of what K-pop dance is like,” she told 48hills. “When they see themselves all together on a larger screen after they record, I think that just gives a really precious memory to people and sums up an important idea of this exhibition, which is that everyone can enjoy hallyu.”
Perhaps to prove this very point, Choi and Jay Xu, the museum’s director (who has announced plans to leave his post next year to begin work on a national Asian Pacific American history and culture museum) posted a charming K-pop routine danced on the institution’s imposing stairs.
Nods to the creators of the right-now do seem to be one of the museum’s current focuses. Last Thursday, it hosted a K-pop trivia night with Sunset store SarangHello. Last month saw New Waves in Seoul, a “lifestyle pop-up” featuring a conversation with the Stanford Center for Innovation and Design Research and 1.55 million-follower Korean influencer and model Jin-kyung Hong, who also works as a comedian and food entrepreneur. Well-known in Korea, she recently launched her kimchee brand at H Marts in the United States.
“The reason why I wanted to invite her was—first of all, she’s not a fine artist, but she is an artist to me, because she’s so skillful in so many things,” Choi said. “That’s also another aspect to Korean pop stars—they’re so multi-faceted.”
Choi wants to try unconventional ways to get people, particularly younger people, involved in the museum. Hosting a popular YouTube star is a way to just do that, she says.
Chesca Rueda owns SarangHello with her husband, Pip Reyes, and their close friend, Kevin Teng. She appreciated museum officials asking their opinion about what should be in the Hallyu! show, and was happy to provide thoughts on graphics. She’s a big fan of the idols’ stage outfits and large neon fingers in the shape of a heart at the show’s entrance.
“I think we were part of the early group of people they reached out to ask, What resonates with you when you think of this type of exhibit?,” Rueda told 48 Hills on the phone. “We were like, ‘It would be really cool if you guys had a photo booth.’ Because booths are very popular in Korea, and we have one in our store as well.”
SarangHello curated albums that are now for sale in museum store, and even put together a playlist for the exhibition. The Hallyu show itself has around 250 objects on display, was first presented at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, and was also shown at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Choi wanted to make sure San Francisco, a sister city to Seoul and part of an urban area with a large number of Korean Americans, received an engaging and interactive show.
The associate curator grew up in Korea, listening to K-pop and watching K-dramas, but she said she’s met many people in the United States who know more than she does about Korean pop culture. Korea becoming a cultural superpower has changed things, she says. “Our Bay Area audience is more keen on Korean culture, and they’re more aware of it,” she said. “In our exhibition, I’ve wanted to have a lot of immersive experiences that are entertaining and engaging.”
Choi may be set to complete a PhD in the industrialization and modernization of the craft industry in Northeast Asia and have a research interest in cultural interactions and exchanges between Korea and Japan—but she’s also a fan girl. She didn’t expect that bonafide to get her a job, but suspects it was among the credentials the museum was interested in when they hired her in the summer of last year. Her fluency allows her to connect pop culture to the museum’s excellent collection, she says, creating cohesive narratives.
“When people think about museums, they have this preconception the museum should have fine artwork, and I think nowadays, the yardstick of fine art is very blurry because, as you’ve seen throughout our show, the refined-ness and the art history of culture is so amazing,” she said.
“It is about time we question what exactly fine art is and the function of or the responsibility of the museum, Choi continued. Breaking down that barrier was part of my goal and our museum’s goal, and delivers the very message that I want to say to our audience: that Korean pop culture is just not a phase, it’s just teeming with creativity and artistry and professionalism.”
HALLYU! THE KOREAN WAVE runs through January 6. Asian Art Museum, SF. Tickets and more info here.
