Artist Statement
North Korea refers to itself as a powerful and prosperous nation, although its population is roughly 24 million with an estimation of 16 million people requiring food aid. It is an isolated country, considered to be under extreme dictatorship and is one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogenous in the world. It is a country that causes tension and a country the world knows little about. North Korea’s propaganda is known for its socialist realism, portraying images of prosperity and progressiveness, and depicting its Citizens as happy and enthusiastic. It goes to such extreme measures of depiction that North Korea’s National animal the chollima, is in fact the mythological horse with wings- the Pegasus. The meat rack shows North Korea’s image of itself- structured, prosperous and in control. However, instead of meat hanging from the rack, it is instead their only national animal, their own image being hung. Isolation, dictatorship, and unwillingness has left North Korea like this, alone and decaying under its own rule.