Making Memories at the Museum

INSIGHT

by LYNDSEY TWINING A Member of the Editorial Board of National Museum of Korea, quarterly magazine

Lyndsey Twining seemed to know the large part about the museum, from the current exhibitions to past special exhibitions, new exhibits, and online contents. As we talked, her deep interest and affection for Korean culture were clearly apparent.

“We see only what we know.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Introduction to the Propyläen, 1798

As someone whose work and studies are focused on the interpretation of Korea’s cultural heritage both in Korean and English, I spend much of my time familiarizing myself with a variety of historic sites and their related artifacts. Visiting museums related to Korean history and culture is thus naturally one of my favorite pastimes. The National Museum of Korea (NMK) is the largest and most comprehensive museum in Korea thanks to its permanent galleries covering Korean history in chronological order, its galleries featuring Buddhist and Confucian painting, literature, and sculpture, and its special temporary exhibitions. It is therefore the museum I have visited most often since moving to Korea in 2013.

I have visited the NMK on dozens of occasions, each time creating new memories. So, when I think of the museum, my mind floods with snapshots of the numerous memories I cherish from my trips.

I have visited the NMK on dozens of occasions, each time creating new memories. So, when I think of the museum, my mind floods with snapshots of the numerous memories I cherish from my trips. I can still picture myself standing in front of the long timeline of Korean history and excitedly explaining all the various historic periods to my friend Leah, who came to Korea to visit me. I recall sitting alone in the Buddhist sculpture exhibit and feeling a sense of calm wash over me in the presence of the several massive Buddhist statues, as well as visiting the special exhibition about maps from the Joseon Dynasty 1392–1897 with my friends from graduate school and totally geeking out, because there are few things that I get more excited about than historical maps. I vividly remember watching my friend Chelsea’s face as she took in the beautiful immersive visual art that was made to accompany the special exhibitions of the paintings Wintry Days (Sehando) by Kim Jeonghui and Welcoming Banquet for the Governor of Pyeong-an by Kim Hongdo. And I could never forget taking a day trip on a bonechillingly cold January day to the Daegu National Museum with my friend Robert who was living in Daegu at the time.

These are just a few of the lovely memories I have of the NMK. By unintentionally making the NMK a regular part of my life, it has become a marker for how I have changed and grown over the past eight years—most notably in terms of my relationships. But it has also helped me to see just how my knowledge of Korean history, religion, and art has also grown over the years. Over the course of my graduate program, I have translated or edited thousands of interpretive texts relating to Korean cultural heritage. I did not feel as if I was really learning anything significant from each individual text at the time, but with each visit to the NMK, I noticed that the works of art and artifacts seemed to have more and more to say to me and thus became multi-dimensional in a way I had not recognized before.

For example, when I first visited the museum, I had no understanding of Buddhist paintings at all. Sure, they were beautiful in their intricacy and colorful splendor, but the symbols, composition, and figures meant nothing to me. However, after seeing many Buddhist paintings through my work over the past years and being tasked with making sure they are properly explained to their audience, I can now distinguish the Buddha from the bodhisattvas, recognize the wrathful guardians and celestial maids, and explain the symbolism of the various hand gestures.

Most recently, I went to see the Buddhist Hanging Scroll from Sinwonsa Temple (National Treasure No. 299) that is currently being exhibited. Created in 1664, the painting measures over 11 meters in height and has 33 main figures, with Rocana Buddha as the principal Buddha. As I admired the painting, I was hit with a deep sense of excitement as I realized that I was familiar with each and every figure. It felt as if I was playing a game of Where’s Waldo or I Spy.

“Yes! Down at the bottom! There are the Four Guardian Kings, with their monster-like faces, who are protecting the Buddha’s teachings in all directions. Oh, next to them are two bodhisattvas holding the sun and the moon! It must be Suryaprabha and Candraprabha, the Bodhisattvas of Sunlight and Moonlight. Oh, and look near the top! That must be Maha Kasyapa and Ananda, the Buddha’s best disciples, together with the other disciples.”

The more background knowledge I have gained, the more exciting my trips to the museum have become. I am still by no means an expert in Buddhist art— my recall of names is often poor, and I am not so familiar with the significance of stylistic details. But the NMK has allowed me to verify time and time again that my knowledge is indeed growing.

Unfortunately, with the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, many people, including myself, were unable to visit the NMK for some time. This revealed the importance of providing exhibits and other content online. My own work in the field of digital humanities is intimately related to this need, in that it emphasizes the utilization of the digital environment to develop innovative research and education techniques. The NMK ramped up its efforts to make its exhibitions available for viewing online via resources like 360-degree virtual reality tours.However, while such virtual environments are extremely useful as educational tools, they have yet to recreate the visceral experience of visiting the museum. Maybe in some decades, virtual reality will be able to recreate with fidelity not only the sights of the museum, but the smells, sounds, and textures that one encounters, so that memories cannot only be made in the real world, but in the virtual world as well.

But for now, nothing beats visiting the museum in person. I am grateful for the work of the South Korean government and the staff of the NMK in implementing strict regulations that allow for safe visitation of the museum. With these restrictions, the museum has become less crowded, and thus a bit more intimate, which I have enjoyed more than the past when the museum was bustling with guests. It has been an unexpected upside to an otherwise lamentable situation.I hope that the museum can soon welcome many visitors again, including those from abroad, so that they may make their own special memories, as I have, while enjoying Korea’s many artistic masterpieces.However, in the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the extra peace and quiet at the museum.

The writer graduated with a B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan. She has lived in Korea since 2013 when she was an exchange student at Yonsei University. Since 2015, she has been studying digital humanities at the Graduate School of Korean Studies at the Academy of Korean Studies, with a focus on the interpretation and translation of Korean cultural heritage.

Beautiful visual art of the Welcoming Banquet for the Governor of Pyeong-an by Kim Hongdo

Buddhist paintings intended to convey the Buddha’s teachings