In researching the next country on my list for this project, a lot of questions were raised about what defines contemporary art, and how can a contemporary artwork represent the culture and context of a specific country in a way that applies to wider global issues? So far, my eye has been drawn to artists that produce works that stand out from the norm, and represent issues central to how a society or people group can be defined, often by representing the experiences marginalized groups who do not have a specific voice. The problem with North Korea is that there is no ‘contemporary art’ scene as we define it. With creative freedom being illegal, the works currently being produced by North Korean artists reflect the one and only accepted creative art form, socialist realism. Dominated by government ideology, which we understand is incredibly problematic and dictatorial, I don’t perceive these artworks to truly represent the reality of the country, nor fit the criteria of what defines contemporary art within are understanding. They don’t even meet the criteria of what it means to be creatively free.
There are a group of North Koreans that are no longer confined to the authoritarian rule of the government, defectors, those which have escaped the hardship of the regime with a hope to no longer suffer. Even amongst this group, locating contemporary artists is challenging, as after escape, many defectors, particularly female ones, fall into the hands of human traffickers, and, if they avoid this, meet poverty due to their economic and cultural subjugation in South Korean society. Entering the mainstream art world is still challenging, after all. Sun Mu emerged as an artist who trained in North Korea and continued to practice his socialist-realist style satirically through paintings exploring the politics of his homeland.
His artwork is provocative, and incredibly political. He defies the boundaries of the sacred rules associated with the images of the leaders of his old homeland. In his exhibitions, for example, visitors have been expected to walk over the names and images of the country’s dear leaders. His works reflect the savage repercussions of the government’s policy in his home country, and how he believes it can change. In one work for example, two children hold hands wearing clothing emblazoned with the flags of North and South Korea. In another, Kim Jong Il is depicted as unwell, a Coca-Cola IV drip allowing him to cling on to life.
As a successful contemporary artist, Sun stays away from the spotlight, hiding his identity so as to protect family that are still in the North from facing repercussions. The film I Am Sun Mu (2015) shows how he prepares for an exhibition in China, working hard to remain anonymous, for the show to be shut down upon its opening by the police. The artist and his family flee the country of fear of imprisonment and his identity is never revealed. Although there is often a tendency in the contemporary art world for a cult of personality to be created for an artist to make the works more desirable, Sun, in some ways, becomes another more sinister version of Banksy, a defector running from a brutal regime which threatens his life. The only way to survive is anonymity.
Yet, this anonymity makes Sun’s works so endearing. The audience are on his side, willing his survival through an appreciation of his works. Though a pop-art version of the socialist realist style may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it proves challenging to argue that the images produce a record of what it means to live in a time in which human rights continue to lie in the hands of all-powerful, out-of-touch men.
To see more of Sun Mu’s works here.
Next up, Montenegro…….
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