In high school, I was always interested in the idea of uncovering the hidden voices of the less powerful and underrepresented people in our society through my artworks, so I did a lot of work with especially the young North Korean defectors. After several years of volunteer work with them and after conducting a few interviews, I created paintings that contain within them messages that the young defectors wanted to share with people around the world, and my goal for those pieces was to essentially carry their voices and deliver them to a wider audience.
This article also shows artworks created by North Korean defectors themselves, and I think these are very powerful in its role of raising awareness about the reality of North Korea and allowing the defectors to speak up for themselves. Art has also been used as a means of therapy for those defectors who have a hard time trusting anyone or talking about their life back in the North. I think art—regardless of what form—maximizes its power when it plays an important role in our real lives, impacting and hopefully improving the world we live in altogether.
