August 2022
Let’s Exchange Grass with Meat | Linocut Prints
One of our collection of Korean Linocut prints, we explore this piece based on a North Korean propaganda slogan promoting the consumption of meat instead of grass.
Artist: Kwang
Date: Unknown (1990s early 2000s)
Title: Morning at the Farm
Linocut Prints Background
North Korea’s territory is around 80% mountainous and largely unsuitable for anything but grazing, fruit trees and forestry.
Almost all arable land is utilised for crops. This mainly consists of rice, maize, and potatoes. Goats are unfussy eaters and provide opportunities for meat and milk where conditions are tough although. Plus, they also contribute to erosion.
Let’s Exchange Grass with Meat!
Linocut Prints Context
“Let’s Exchange Grass with Meat” was a slogan used during the ‘Arduous March’ in the mid-1990s in which food shortages and famine had a devastating impact. Idealised artworks during this period give the impression all would soon improve.
In 2012, Comrade Kim Jong Un once again proposed the campaign of “Exchanging grass with meat” as a major national policy. Chairman Kim Il Sung’s posthumous teaching was to create a grass field and spread goat raising as a whole army-wide movement.
In 1962, Kim Il Sung gave instruction to Chang Song County in North Pyongan Province (capital Sinuijiu). He instructed to solve the problem of raising grass-eating animals according to the characteristics of the mountain area. Indeed, the party’s livestock policy has continued to this day. Kim Jong Il adopted the Swiss-style livestock industry in the early 1990s and set up a campaign to raise goats and rabbits across the country to “Exchange grass with meat”.
