North Korean painter Song Byeok (a pseudonym adopted for protection) was chosen to be an official propaganda artist for Kim Jong-il’s regime when he was just 24. The artist now uses his satirical work to critique the North Korean government, depicting the late Great Leader in a Marilyn Monroe-style dress or documenting the country’s harsh landscapes, while still depicting the North Korean people as strong and hopeful, if hard-pressed — effectively turning the devices of propaganda back on themselves. These outspoken paintings are possible only because of Song’s flight to South Korea.
What made Song turn from a state propagandist into an escapee ex-patriate? Growing up, Song writes on his Web site, he was “brainwashed into believing tyrant Kim Jong-il loved his people.” What made him reconsider the government’s relationship to his countrymen was the North Korean famine, which lasted through much of the 1990s and caused the death of millions of people — including Byeok’s mother, father, and sister. Before he finally escaped to South Korea, Song was brutally punished for attempting to cross into China to find food.
Song turned his art into a tool to expose the hypocrisy of the North Korean regime: "I want to tell the world the secrets being kept by North Korea,” he told the Los Angeles Times in an interview. “My artwork is that conversation." With the help of American supporters, Song will soon bring his dissident voice to the United States.
A Kickstarter fundraising project called “Propaganda Meets Pop Art” is working to help Song find a voice in the U.S., planning exhibitions in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The artist’s work will be displayed at Atlanta’s Goat Farm Arts Center, and Song himself will lecture at Georgia’s Emory University on February 21. Noted organizer Greg Pence, who first met Song while doing research in South Korea as a Fulbright student, “The more eyeballs we can get to see Song Byeok’s works of art, the better.”
Works that will be on view in the Atlanta exhibition include “Mass Games,” a representation of the Olympics-style competition that sees North Koreans performing in unison. In this version, though, the coordinated dancers wear shawls that become bloodied flesh as they run together. “Hillside Slums” depicts a wintry village, cold and lifeless save for one lit window in the foreground. In contrast, “Hope” shows a young North Korean boy in uniform, his outstretched arms echoed by spread wings.
The work reflects Song’s love of North Korea, but also his independence from the country's dangerous ideology. Interviewed by the Guardian after Kim Jong-il died, Song said that he felt “rather calm” after hearing of the dictator’s passing. "I thought to myself about him, 'You, too, are human in the end.’”
Song’s Kickstarter fund has received $3,300 in donations, out of a $6,500 goal. Supporters can contribute through the Web site.
See more of Song Byeok’s work by clicking on the slide show.