Mari Katayama, born in 1987 in Japan, is an artist of the body; her own to be exact. She celebrates the life of body and spirit in photographic self-portraits and the embroidering of objects that relate to her body.   Sean Sheehan   Exhibitions of her work have been seen […]

The bureaucratic impersonality of ‘H8’ as the name for a refugee shelter sums up the anonymity of the place and the state of nothingness that its residents are reduced to.   Sean Sheehan   When it finally closed at the end of 2018, H8 had been in operation for more […]

You can almost feel sorry for male Korean writers, struggling to get noticed in the world of ‘hanguk munhak’ (Korean literature) where female writers now dominate.   Sean Sheehan   Such a turnabout has its roots in the blistering pace of social and economic developments that has convulsed South Korea […]

Hollywood movies touted as blockbusters before they are released often turn out to be lacklustre –“Tenet” is a recent example– but there is firmer ground under old films that have come to be recognised as masterpieces.     Sean Sheehan   Director Douglas Sirk and his films with the actor […]

The bare story of Homer’s “Odyssey” – a man returns home from the battlefield of Troy after various adventures, defeats his enemies and is reunited with his loyal wife – cannot explain the enduring appeal of Homer’s tale to readers who don’t believe in heroes and happy endings.   Sean […]