A Look into Tim Burton’s Seoul

Aside from my devotion to dance, I am also an avid lover of art. Ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil, my dad taught me how to draw. I suppose it was only natural that I find a boyfriend who shares the same interest. Although neither one of us went into art as a major we do still sketch for fun and of course attend all sorts of museums and exhibitions.

Much to our delight, the infamous Tim Burton has graced the lovely city of Seoul with his art work. While Tim Burton’s work does tend to be a bit on the creepy side and Beetlejuice gave me nightmare for months, as an artist I really admire his unmatched creativity. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed in the actual exhibit halls, but I did manage to sneak a few snapshots to share with you all.

This exhibition pretty much divides Burton’s life into three parts. The first is “Surviving Burbank.” This part gives you a good look into his childhood art and allows you to see and get a feel for the kind of kid he was. There are lots of reoccurring themes of loneliness and outcasts. He develops his use of swirls and spirals here as well as his distorted fascination with clowns. I found this part to be really interesting because I felt like I could relate to him in some ways and understand his style a bit more, even though we have extremely different art styles.

“Beautifying Burbank” is the second part. This covers most of his time at Cal Arts and with Disney. You can see that this is where he really starts to develop his signature animation style, along with some random and surprisingly normal pieces thrown in the mix. It was pretty cool to see the figures he created based on the pictures he had done, kind of like they popped right off the pages. Personally, I really liked the display of random napkins he had doodled on because thats something I like to do too. Unfortunately I usually end up losing mine or throwing them out.

The final section is entitled “Beyond Burbank.” This part covers all the live action movies he’s worked on. It was really cool to see all the props from some of my favorite movies like the gloves from Edwrd Scissorhands and the Batman cowls from Batman Returns.

This was an incredible exhibit I only wish there were more art pieces, but that’s just me being greedy. The exhibition has been on tour since 2009, making Seoul its final destination which makes it “extra special,” according to Burton. As such, this exhibit has 100 additional new works from his most recent film Frankenweenie. So if you happen to be in Seoul and haven’t checked it out yet, you definitely should! The Tim Burton exhibit will be on display at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) from December 12, 1012 to April 14, 2013. There’s a 12,000 entrance fee and I would also recommend renting an audio guide to give you the full virtual experience. Until text time…