This book contains over 100 original street art and graffiti photographs taken in the City of Seoul, South Korea. It's an effort to help capture and preserve the temporary public expression that appears in the streets.
Book Introduction:
While traveling in South Korea I explored it's 2000-year-old capital, Seoul. This book contains over 100 original street art and graffiti photographs taken within city limits near Gangnam, Insadong, Itaewon, Sinsa and Hongdae. It is a creative effort to help preserve the temporary visual artwork on the streets of Seoul.
At 25 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, Seoul itself is twice the size of New York City. It's one of the top ten financial centers in the world with over 100 museums and numerous prestigious universities. There is a culture here that is only represented anonymously in the reclaimed public spaces of the city. Images dot the urban landscape in the typical street art mediums that are used across the globe.
As is true in all cities, personal public artistic expressions touch on the struggles and triumphs of the current culture. In many cases, more can be gleaned from street art than from what is covered in the mainstream media.
In these pages, you will also see some of the darker themes and opinions reflecting Korean society*:
- Suicide, the highest suicide rate in the world
- Individuality and the importance of self image, the highest number of plastic surgeries in the world
- Immense pressure to succeed in school and work with high rates of youth unemployment
- Repressive Confucian honor-shame culture
- Gender equality roles
- Rebirth from Korean war destruction
- Environmental pollution
- Reliance on nuclear power and oil
- Free Trade Agreement with the US (entered into effect in March 2012), seen on the FTA Banksy rat stencil
This book is a small window into a temporary art world that is constantly being revised in a flux of new symbols. Enjoy!
