Kim Jong – il’s North Korea.
My intension for this project was to give the viewer more of an understanding of what it is actually like to live in North Korea under a brutal dictatorship in a totalitarian state. To do this I had to focus on Kim Jong-il as he has controlled North Korea for 20 years, and is very much responsible for the atrocities opposed on his people and the current state of the economy. An estimated two million people have died since the mid 90’s due to major food shortages, economic disasters and terrible mismanagement. With the country now relying on food aid to feed millions of its people… mean while Kim Jong-il continues to live a life of luxury.
(Photo images)
The images of him are printed on cheap paper that has a subtle soft pastel blue surface to it with a stone white marble effect. This gives of a sense of coldness and cheap wealth, and relate to the iconic sculptures of old and new leaders made with only the best materials, and placed throughout the state to further impose the Working Men’s Party regime. So you now get the feeling of wealth, poverty and hierarchy with Kim Jong – il, printed on this cheap paper with a standard laser jet printer
(The last image)
The last image is just text with the famous slogan “Feeding people with rice and meat soup”, this I found appropriate in the piece as it was a slogan that was created by the regimes founder Kim Il-sung, and inherited by Kim Jong-il. As this seems to be a family tradition now Kim Jong-il has started to take a back seat from power and has handed over power to his 26 year old son “Kim Jong-un”. This slogan seems to play purely as a propaganda tool to again give the North Korean People false hope, that an economic reconstruction will take place. Now his son is in power he has stressed improvements to people’s lives. "In the past, it was fine if we didn't have food as long as we had bullets. But now we must have food, but not necessarily bullets," he has been quoted as saying.
(Black) The black ink represents positive and negative meanings that include: power, supremacy, seriousness, authority, fear, evil and secrecy. Kim Jong - il also dresses in grey uniforms that to me represent a coldness and blandness of his character, and is what North Korea has now become under his dictatorship. Each image starts to pixelate and becomes less obvious and unclear to look at. This then starts to create the effect of a more prominent black, with the pixilation indicating a deteriation of his health, and most importantly the crumbling economy, with an old dictator still hanging onto power, and using propaganda tools to make people believe he is still strong and well.
(Red)
The red throw over I managed to source seemed a very appropriate element to the piece as the red symbolises the communist philosophy of the country and conjures up feelings of aggression, anger, battles, revolution, cruelty and power. It also has an Asian feel to it with the patterning and padding. I also wanted to give of a feeling of a market stool that is linked with the underground screen grab footage at Onsong market that is repeated as a slide show at the end of the table on the laptop.
(Rare footage of botched N.Korean reform)
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/04/22/2010042200391.html
(Rice + white)
The rice represents the gradual crumbling of the country’s economy with rice being the main source of food. The regime had set control policies one after the other, including a ban on all grain transactions in the markets in October 2005. In 2007 they cracked down on illegal markets, and attempted to turn general markets into farmers markets in 2008… but failed. In 2009 the regime banned the sale of any industrial goods and the use of foreign currency. Due to protests and violent attacks on market officials this rule has now been relaxed. In terms of colour, the white rice has sacredness to it, and represents hope to all the North Korean people with its simplicity communicating how simple a life these people live, with all their basic needs being met with enough rice and water to feed themselves and their families.
(Blue)
The blue is a contradiction with its meaning being sovereignty, peace and friendship based on the flag. With negative meanings of depression, repression, coldness and detachment, based on the realities of the North Korean state.
With the white rice placed on the vibrant blue creating a sharp contrast that represents these contradictions in the form of lies and be trails the people have experienced throughout.
