8 Korean female creatives that you should know about
By Ella Kaill (@ellakaill)
International Women’s Day is March 8th and for the occasion, we’ve decided to highlight 8 creative women from Korea. Our list is made up of people working in a range of mediums; artists, musicians, writers, directors and more.
HAEPAARY
HAEPAARY are the duo producing the freshest sound we have heard in Korea, or elsewhere for that matter, in a while. HYEWON and MINHEE have a faultless knack for seasoning raw trance beats with intricate Confucian lyrics and melodies. They combine elements from Royal Ancestral Ceremony music (Jongmyojeryeak), played in Jongmyo Shrine during the Joseon period, and from Namchang Gagok, traditionally only performed by men, with their slick electronic beats. If you liked the infectious sound of LEENALCHI's 2020 hit Tiger is Coming, you might also enjoy HAEPAARY's go to gpd and then. The track recently won Best Electronic Song at this year's Korean Music Awards (KMAs). The duo also received nominations for Rookie of the Year and Best Electronic Album, so we're expecting massive things from them.
Kirara
You may already know KIRARA as a long-time Platform Magazine favourite from our gushing reviews of her maximalist sound. Socially progressive and brimming with talent, she has skillfully carved a space in the Korean music scene for her art by consistently producing innovative electronic tracks. She is also one of the amazing women on this list to have been nominated at the KMAs this year; her song HRT was up for Best Electronic Song. If you didn't already know KIRARA, we suggest you start by listening to her most recent album release, 4, which we gave a whopping score of 9.9/10.
Jee Ook
Jee Ook Choi has such a distinct illustration style that there's a chance you're already familiar with her work. Her art tightropes between moments of vivid imagination and realism. Jee Ook's portfolio is free to browse on her Tumblr, but her muted colour palette and unconventional compositions have also attracted commercial attention in the last few years. Most recently, she worked with cosmetics brand Sulhwasoo, and she was also handpicked to create illustrations for Peggy Gou's merchandise and music releases. We can't get enough of Jee Ook's peculiar yet sophisticated style.
Beth S.J. Lee (Seung-ju Lee) and Darcygom
Darcygom is a fashion brand emphasising the importance of sustainability in fashion. Headed by Beth S.J. Lee, Darcygom is an old Korean word that has fallen out of use but translates as 'yet again' in English. Traditional Korean clothing is central to their design philosophy, and the brand often mixes traditional fabrics with modern fabric. As well as encouraging sustainability, the brand are keen to keep traditions alive. Using specially-selected fabrics and materials, they continue to steer the modernising of traditional attire. Lee started the brand as a protest against the fleeting trends of the fast-fashion world, as well as out of her love for Korean tradition.
Kim Bora
Kim Bora released her debut feature-length film House of Hummingbird in 2018 and was crowned Best New Director by the Korean Association of Film Critics' Awards in the subsequent year. Set in 1994, the film focuses on a middle-school student searching for love in the streets of Seoul after the Seongsu Bridge collapse. The film was well-received domestically and at international festivals, but it took Kim seven years to secure the funding. The director also spent this time building up the confidence to produce the film. Her experiences studying film in Korea and the US taught her that the female film students often had doubts about their own work due to a lack of female representation in the industry. Because of her experiences, Kim Bora is a strong believer in increasing gender equality in the film industry. She hopes to inspire young female filmmakers to pursue their own careers.
Jiyeo
When she was younger, Jiyeo found herself particularly discouraged by the societal pressures on women to aspire to beauty standards that could only be achieved by plastic surgery. The women pictured in Jiyeo's work titled 'Beauty Recovery Room' are puffy-eyed, bruised and bandaged. It is a disruption to the conventional before-and-after surgery brochures. She also staged a performance in New York where she asked, "Where should I get plastic surgery?" and encouraged strangers to draw on her. Jiyeo's work lights the way for a generation to object to the unrealistic and unfair standards pushed onto young women in Korea.
Cho Nam-ju
Cho Nam-ju became a best-selling author with the release of her book 'Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982', which has sold over a million copies and been sold in 19 countries. She writes novels, essays and short stories that realistically depict the struggles of ordinary women in Korea, based on her own experiences and observations. Not only is her work popular in Korea, but the lives of her characters also provoke empathy and relatability in readers across the globe. Cho is a self-proclaimed feminist, and all her works expose systematic misogyny and sexism, a brave feat in a country ready and willing to paint feminism as evil, sinful and dividing. We admire Cho Nam-ju's commitment to sharing the reality of going through life as a woman.
Kim Hyun Sook
Critically-acclaimed graphic novel Banned Book Club is the autobiographical story of Kim Hyun Sook. The book is set during the author's time at university in 1980's South Korea. It's a coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of significant political, social, and militaristic upheaval. Since its release in 2020, Banned Book Club has garnered a slew of positive reviews and picked up several awards along the way. Praise for the book has focused on Kim Hun Sook's frank-but-humorous depiction of her life during this tumultuous time. She currently lives in Busan, where she runs a new banned book club.
