Oddly Enough In Korea – The Great Stone Face Sculpture Park

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  What do you do if you are the founder of one of the largest mental health facilities in South Korea with 20 acres of unused land and have extra won laying around?  You start commissioning the creation of tacky sculptures of course!  This is what Chun Guen-hee of Eum Seong did on the parklands surrounding his psychiatric and geriatric hospitals.

  I have been wanting to visit the park ever since reading about it in the UK Daily Mail.  Strange tourist traps draw me to them like a moth to a flame, especially when they are perfect fodder for blog content!

  Here is entrance to The Great Stone Face Sculpture Park.  The admission is 6,000 won per person (About $5.20).  Which grants you entrance to the Grande park surrounded by three medical institutions, a psychiatric and geriatric hospital, and an alcohol treatment center.

The park contains stone statues of famous people, symbols of religion, science and learning, and pop culture.

Here is the Dali Lama.

Buddist Statues

Ghandi

Pope John Paul II

John Lennon

Some of the sculptures require a bit of imagination, or the ability to read the Korean descriptions.  Who can guess that this is Condoleezza Rice?

Hillary Clinton.

Other famous people from the political arena included.

Queen Elizabeth.

Princess Diana

To some of the darker corners of political and economic thought.  Or as I called it,  Murder’s row.

Fidel Castro

Kim Il Sung

If you think this might be Osama Bin Ladin, it does not fit the time period.  The Ayatollah Komaeni would be the correct answer.

Finally, Idi Amin.

There was a collection of really nice statues dedicated to sports.

Korean runner winning a race.

Snowboarder’s

Bicyclists.

And skiers

Among the entertainment and pop culture statues.

Elvis – The King himself.

Psy, who is famous for the K-Pop hit Gangnam Style.

And Marilyn Monroe

Other sculptures depicted older Korean customs / family life.  Here is a boy “Winowing”.  If you remember the blog I did on the Toilet Museum in Suwon.  Winowing was the practice of sending your bed wetting child around to your neighbors with a Winnow basket to collect salt to halt your nocturnal urination. 

Woman enjoying the sun.

One great thing about going to a place like a statue park for photography, is that you get to practice skills that are important for other styles of photography.  Such as different angels and focal lengths for portraits (Though you never would shoot at 16mm for a “portrait”, but for more of an artistic presentation of your subject?

I like the depth the wide angel gives, but there is too much dead space at the top.  Could have gotten closer and “looked down” on the subject, or a small chair or step ladder to elevate myself over the subject might have worked without changing the focal length.

Curious as to what this couple is praying for?  Is it a wedding?  Are they praying for a deceased son our daughter? The sculptor definitely captures the solemnity of the moment.

The subtle differences in these two women’s expressions capture two completely different emotions.

Girl going to market.

I am assuming this is supposed to depict a lawyer swearing someone in, though I do not know what book you would be swearing on in Korea.

I will admit the sculpture park is a bit odd, especially being in the middle of a Psychiatric Hospital.  I could not help think what it would be like being transported here by ambulance, arriving at these large stone buildings, and being surrounded by these statues.  Especially the ones depicting health care workers.  I might think that the inmates are running the asylum.

I hope you enjoyed this photo filled blog.  I do apologize for the lack of connect lately. There is more great content coming, so please visit frequently!  If you wish to receive a notification when new content is posted, please consider registering by clicking HERE.