Bus Conductor

Bus Conductor
Size: 49 x 69  cm
Edition of 10
Artist: Hwang In Jae
Price: 1600 EUR
ID: L038

North Korea Linocut:
The Bus Conductor

Hwang In Jae captures the pride of a worker going about her work in this North Korean linocut.

It is a beautiful piece rhythmic and gently handled.

THE LINOCUT

The celebration of manual work is something we rarely portray in the West. We see it as a mundane subject matter and not of visual interest,

However, in North Korea, it is a tool to inculcate the lessons of socialism.

Hwang In Jae told us the piece should show that ‘we all sacrifice ourselves for the common good, we go out of our way to do jobs for others without reward’.

Koryo Studio keeps the first print and we have just a few of these pieces left. The commission was one of the artist’s last works before he died.

SUBJECT MATTER

Looking after your equipment is regarded as sacrosanct in the DPRK to the extent that machines that perform well will receive medals. Therefore the people who have looked after the machine are by default rewarded.

In this case, Hwang In Jae depicts the trolley bus conductor cleaning her bus.

Pyongyang public transport is made up of the metro, buses, trolley buses (using overhead electric wires but not running on tracks) and trams.

For a drive along the streets of Pyongyang via trolley bus, click here