August 2020
The following is a redaction of a paper by Suhanaya Raffel on North Korean mosaics.
Flower Girl, North Korean Film
August 2020
The following is a redaction of a paper by Suhanaya Raffel on North Korean mosaics.
Nicholas Bonner (Koryo Studio) and Suhanya Rafale (Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane) co-curated the DPRK submission to the 6thAsia Pacific Triennial. As part of this body of work they commissioned a large-scale, vibrant mosaic ‘Work team contest’ by North Korean artist Kim Hyung Il for the Contemporary Asian Collection. Technically virtuosic and monumental in scale, it is a striking group portrait of workers at a steelworks foundry in the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK).
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Monumental in scale, and dazzling in their technical accomplishment, these vast back-drops communicate educational messages about nationhood and unity and are visible for the whole of society – on buildings, in thestunning platform lengthmosaics of Yonggwang Metro Station, and in the countryside.
Mosaic murals have been avidly adopted as an important format for historical narratives and both their production and display require mass participation. What is interesting in the making of these works and their subsequent placement in the public realm is the acknowledgement of the role of artists as important collaborators in the construction of social knowledge. Within the accepted limits of artistic representation, artists in the DPRK are agents in communicating and reinforcing a work ethos and a parallel social order.
1. Juche, which is premised on the concept of self-reliance, became the official state ideology when the country adopted a new constitution in 1972 though Kim Il-Sung had been using it to develop national policy since 1955. See Portal, Jane. ‘Art under Control in North Korea’, Reaktion Books in association with The British Museum Press, London, 2005. p.120.
2. Ibid. p.126.
3. The adoption of this visual style has been partly attributed to Kim Il-Sung’s experience with both the Chinese guerrillas and the Soviet Red Army. See Portal, Jane. ‘Art under control in North Korea’, Reaktion Books in association with The British Museum Press, London, 2005. pp. 43-44.
4. Portal, Jane. Ibid. p.148.