We are celebrating International Men鈥檚 Day this November. Featured artworks in this issue are works by residents Mark Hartley and Seung Ju Noh, exhibited in the 2025 No Place Like 秀秀直播 Art Exhibition.
A Village Coloured by the Sunset, Seung Ju Noh
My painting was inspired by literary paintings, and by a painting named 鈥淪ochi Heo Ryeun 1808-1893鈥� from Joseon Dynasty. Literary painting is a painting enjoyed by scholars, and like the scholars of the past, I painted this painting with a love of nature and art. I want to share and introduce this kind of Korean art culture to the community I belong to.
Hiraeth, Mark Hartley
The title of my work describes a homesickness tinged with grief and sadness over the lost
or departed. As a member of the stolen generation that was adopted to a Welsh mother in 1969, her words of compassion and understanding of my personal loss, due to the practice of forced removal of children, explains the mixture of longing, nostalgia, wistfulness and desire for the past and unknown.
As a child I would ask Santa for my birth mum and my identity; as a life passes, the longing does not go away, nor does it ease the pain.
The image is my self – the owl ‘totem’ and vortex of the turmoils the unknown as I walk/ fly over this vast country, lost stolen and alone, and the stars/crosses are my elders/ mentors that have passed on, ‘as there is never a goodbye whilst they live within and in minds eye’.