Sunday, April 24, 2011

Absolut Art

I'm always looking for different areas where I can buy clothes in Korea. My personal mix of graphic t-shirts and cardigans doesn't take too much effort, but a lot of places are overpriced or just not quite my style. But Darin told me about a street in Sinsa that has a bunch of vintage shops and boutiques, so I had to check it out.



They had an A-Land, which was two stories, and a men's boutique with all female employees (not bad). Also, in said boutique, there was a Spartan helmet on one of the mannequins that Darin just couldn't keep his hands off of. But the high point of the day didn't come in one of the clothing stores, it came with an art exhibit we happened to stumble upon.



If you're a person on the planet earth you've surely seen an advertisement for Absolut Vodka at some point. But you may not know that there's a collection of Absolut-inspired artwork, which recently made a stop in Seoul.



The exhibition was a bit small, but there was an eclectic display of vibrant paintings, bizarre creations and some brilliant takes on the iconic Absolut bottle design.



I never thought a Swedish vodka could spur so much artistry. Paintings by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michael Basquiat, a small city being decimated by a giant goose in rain boots and sunglasses, a short film projected on the bare wall, and a sound system playing music through a row of empty Absolut bottles.



Such great works and creations make for a nice exhibit, but there was one thing that made it even greater: the bar.



Now, this wasn't just any bar. This bar served drinks inspired by the works in the exhibition. The visitors of the gallery were treated to three different cockatils: Absolut Art, Absolut Andy and Absolut Louise. Of course all of the drinks featured an Absolut flavor, and two of them paid respect to renowned artists Andy Warhol and Louise Bourgeois. Oh and did I mention that the drinks were free? Don't worry, I only had two, and they were like 60% crushed ice. Still pretty tasty though.



So that was a cool, midday foray into the marvelous marriage of art and alcohol. I didn't find much in the way of clothing at the shops, most of the shirts were too small for me to even fit (darn skinny Korean people). But I got to see a pretty cool statue of a mermaid with a fish-gun haha.



Cheers