I forgot about self-aggrandizement

Clearly, I am so out of it that I completely forgot to promote my own lecture scheduled for next Friday. I must be operating on Korean time, where notice comes last minute. So, I am actually early in making this invite public! If you are in Seoul next Friday, swing by (the RSVPs are for a head count for the food. There is always lots of food. I won't be insulted if you come more for the food than for me. If I wasn't giving the lecture, I'd be glued to the food stations). If you are shy about the RSVP, just let me know and I'll put you on my guest list. Also, you aren't supposed to be late, but please don't NOT come if you happen to arrive at 7:06pm, okay? In the lecture I gave in the above picture, I think at least three people walked in late and I had NO IDEA. Even though they walked right past me. If they hadn't apologized to me afterwards for being late, I never would have known.

Fulbright Forum
7:00 P.M. on Friday, April 24, 2009
R.S.V.P. by Tuesday, April 21

The Korean-American Educational Commission warmly welcomes you our fourth Fulbright Forum of the 2008-2009 program year with Fulbright Junior Researcher Aimee Lee.

"Spider Paths on the Paper Trail: Contemporary Possibilities for Hanji"

Open to all, the Fulbright Forum serves as a periodic gathering for the Fulbright Family at large, including past and present grantees and friends of Fulbright. Please reply to Nikki Guarino (executive.assistant@fulbright.or.kr) by Tuesday, April 21 to confirm your attendance. Regrets do not need to RSVP. This month's Forum will be held at 7:00 PM sharp on Friday, April 24 in the 6th floor conference room at the KAEC Building in Mapo-gu, Seoul, with a snack reception to follow in the 3rd floor administrative offices. Please visit the KAEC website at www.fulbright.or.kr for maps and directions.

To respect both the audience and presenters, late arrivals will not be allowed to enter after 7:05 PM.

Summary:

Hanji, Korean handmade paper, has a history on the peninsula that reaches back over one thousand years. With origins in China, papermaking spread to east to Korea and then Japan, speeding the use of written materials, contributing to literate and artistic cultures, nurturing religious traditions, and becoming part of daily life. Each culture developed similar but distinct methods of making long-fibered, strong paper from the mulberry tree. Through travel to various papermills, interviews with scholars, and study with artisans, Aimee has gained greater insight into the history of hanji, its glory days as the preferred paper in East Asia, and its demise with the rise of industrialization. She now seeks glimpses of its future: its role in conservation, the arts, and everyday life. Aimee will give a brief history of the craft, show photographs and videos of how hanji is made, as well as its presence in the contemporary art world, and use material demonstrations to exhibit related crafts, such as textured paper, twisting and weaving, and natural dyeing.

Biography:

Aimee Lee is a Junior Fulbright Researcher in Design and an interdisciplinary artist researching the current state of hanji, Korean handmade paper. As a papermaker, she has learned to make hanji from scratch at Jang Ji Bang, a 3rd- and 4th-generation family papermill in Gapyeong, and is currently studying with teachers of natural dyeing and paper weaving. She is affiliated FIDES International, where she is advised by B.K. Kim. She earned her MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago and her BA in Visual Arts from Oberlin College. She has performed extensively in the United States, exhibited internationally, and is now preparing two bodies of work for three solo exhibits in the fall of 2009. For more information, please visit http://aimeelee.net.