Writing & Society Research Centre 'Writing by the River' Event: '"Mahk", Making Spaces'

Mahk Making Spaces

Rough Beauty, Breath, and Korean-Australian Making

With Richard Wu, Cheolyu Kim, Choi Eunji, Anthony Uhlmann and Jing Han

“Mahk”…refers to things unrefined or ordinary...Yet within such “roughness” lies sincerity and immediacy, qualities deeply Korean.” (Yoon Jung-kang, Goodstage 2025)

This forum brings together five international and local artists, scholars and curators to consider creative and philosophical principles at the heart of Koreanmahkaesthetics, in the context of intercultural exchange. It is the first in a dual series of collaborations involving staff and students from creative programs across the School of Arts, which culminates with a performance two days later in the Sydney Opera House. Speakers will consider two new projects at the heart of this collaboration. In the first, Seoul-based performer Choi Eunji (haegeum) is working with the Sydney-based contemporary Southern Song dynasty painter Richard Wu, and with internationally renowned South Korean visual artist Cheolyu Kim. In the second, esteemed Waanyi author Alexis Wright is working with dramaturg Anthony Uhlmann and WSU's acting students with excerpts of Wright’s award-winning novel Carpentaria, freshly translated into Korean (by Dae Young Kim) and Chinese (by Jing Han), adapting them for a series of visual, performative interactions. Panelists will consider the ways different cultural traditions can engage with suspended, non-linear time – for example, in the circular presences of Kim’s ‘nowhere’; in Wright’s sense of ‘all times’ residing in place; in Choi’s sense of ‘time-flow’; and in Wu’s explorations of ‘inner mind’. Following a series of lightning talks about their creative and collaborative practices, curatorJing Hanwill join the four artists in conversation.

PROGRAM

• 10:30am - 11:00am: Morning tea

• 11:00am - 11:45am: Lightning Talks - Richard Wu, Cheolyu Kim, Choi Eunji and Anthony Uhlmann (Chair)

• 11:45am - 12:30pm: Panel Discussion and Questions - Jing Han, Richard Wu, Cheolyu Kim, Choi Eunji and Anthony Uhlmann

• 12:30pm - 1:00pm: Light Lunch