South Korean Designer Gives Voice to Injustice Through Group Art Exhibitions

By Philip Bishop
ArtistsSpeakOut

If you look for North Korea on Google Maps you won’t find anything. All you’ll find is a void. It’s as if the country doesn’t exist. And the fact that Courtney Kim was born and grew up next door in Seoul, South Korea, didn’t make the country any less of a mystery to her. It wasn’t like she could hop in the family car and drive the 35 miles to North Korea’s southern border and pay a visit to her northern neighbors. You’d have an easier time breaking into Fort Knox than you would getting across the DMZ, bristling as it is with all manner of armaments designed to repel entry and prevent escape. Amazingly, some do escape although most choose to flee via North Korea’s less well-protected northern border with China.

While few in South Korea, and fewer still outside the Korean peninsula, used to know about these defections, growing up Courtney Kim had a unique conduit of information about defections in her father who works in South Korea’s Ministry of Unification.

“He was a great influence on my life and education,” says Kim, 27. “A strong believer in freedom and the upholding of human rights, he would pass on many stories of the situations faced by the North Korean people.”

At the same time that Kim was developing a passion for these issues, she was also developing a passion for art which she would parlay into a career as a graphic designer and illustrator in Melbourne, Australia, where she moved in 2001.

This fusion of art and social justice flowered into an ambitious and successful project called “Story of a Secret State,” a group art exhibition that sought to illustrate the egregious human rights violations taking place in North Korean.

The story, as told by the 27 individual pieces of visual, contemporary artwork, is supported by a collection of photographs, writings and cited pieces of factual information, highlighting the great number of issues facing the people of North Korea, including travel restrictions, horrendous working conditions, the questionable methods of distribution of provisions and aid coming from outside nations, the use of punishment, including torture and executions, the denial of the jurisdictions of other countries and most importantly, the neglect and concealment of the nation’s poor and starving citizens.

“Story of a Secret State” takes the visitor on a journey from subjugation to freedom that is poignant, heart-breaking and one that urgently needs to be told. It was shown at Guildford Lane Gallery in Melbourne in Spring 2010 as part of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival (HRAFF).

Artists taking part in the exhibit included Andrea Innocent (Australia), Lisa Golightly (USA), Cat MacInnes (Australia), Courtney Kim (Australia / South Korea), Darwin Tan (Indonesia), Hajin Bae (South Korea), Paul Ikin (Australia), Yiyi Wang (Australia / China), Yunjin Lee (South Korea).

“With my first proposal, I approached Human Rights Arts and Film Festival exactly three months before their festival launch. They rejected me twice saying – ‘Sorry. It sounds really good, but we don’t think you have a realistic chance to bring this together in time’,” recalls Kim.

Kim didn’t see HRAFF’s rejection as a full-stop, merely a comma to be resolved.

“I couldn’t think of any other good opportunities to hold this show and was really desperate to be in the festival,” says Kim. “So rather than stopping it there and looking for a plan B, I just pushed really hard. I endlessly emailed people, talked to people, talked to companies and organizations. I finally secured funding, locked down a venue and selected artists. After showing my financial plan, HRAFF finally accepted my proposal about 50 days before the launch, even though their submissions were closed.”

With HRAFF’s green light, Kim moved vigorously ahead with production, creating a website, promoting the event, and choosing the 27 artworks for the exhibit.

“I always knew it would launch on time, the way I had planned,” says Kim. “Overall, it was a very overwhelming process, but we achieved a great quality result.”

Kim says response to the exhibition was positive.

“Mostly people said they had learned something from seeing the exhibition and now had a broader view on the struggles people face in North Korea. This was my aim,” she says.

Kim says she would like to take the exhibition to New Zealand and China and to that end she has sent out proposals, contacted galleries who might be interested, and is on the trail of funding.

Story of a Secret State is part of a broader “Story of Voices” framework, into and through which other issues will find a home and an audience.

“We are planning on another next human rights exhibition titled ‘The voice of Hidden Fighters’ about child soldiers. It will be another collaborative exhibition with various graphic artists, illustrators, fashion designers, and photographers. It will be an ongoing thing.”

Story of Voices is not solely a vehicle for staging thoughtful, quality art exhibits. Kim would like to see it grow into a movement as more and more voices join her chorus.

“I’m neither a politician nor a human rights spokesman. I believe human rights are a matter of justice,” says Kim. “I’m no more than a designer and an illustrator, but I make a huge commitment in my life to share my beliefs and portray a message. I believe the responsibility of the artist is simply to create awareness in what they believe.”