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| Farmer-artist Hwang Dae-kwon / Korea Times file |
By Park Han-sol
To Hwang Dae-kwon, wild grasses and flowers are much more than just pesky weeds that don’t ever seem to go away. In fact, these nameless plants’ persistent existence is what got him through his more than decade-long prison stay after he was wrongfully convicted.
A series of watercolor paintings of the wild plants he sketched within the confines of his own cell is introduced to the public for the first time through the exhibition “Grass,” at Project Space Mium in Seoul.
After majoring in agriculture at Seoul National University, Hwang went on to study political science in New York in the early 1980s. In 1985, the authoritarian Chun Doo-hwan administration began persecuting dozens of students studying abroad. The government falsely accused him and others of espionage for North Korea, sentencing him to life imprisonment without any hard evidence.
Hwang was released with the help of Amnesty International, after serving 13 years in prison. However, it wasn’t until February 2020 that he was found innocent in a retrial.
While in prison, he was a rebellious inmate initially, staging hunger strikes and constantly fighting with guards. After five years, he realized that his health was deteriorating at a noticeable rate.
Back then, many prisons lacked proper medical staff and healthcare infrastructure. Hwang decided to resort to natural remedies with herbs to treat himself. He found those herbs in the yard of the Andong Correctional Institution, where he was imprisoned.
“The prison yard is supposed to be a grass-free space, since the convicts are ordered to sweep and clean it every day,” he said during a recent artist talk session held at the gallery. “But despite the daily cleaning, to my surprise, I would always come across stems of wild grasses growing in the harsh land and cracks of the walls. I was moved by their tenacious grip on life.”
He persuaded the warden to allow him to transplant the wildflowers and turn a small corner of the yard into his own flower bed. The wild plants became his only means of enduring the reality of his stolen youth.
“As I grew, ate and observed the grasses, I saw my whole outlook on the world and life changing. They were my savior, healer and teacher that introduced me to the new world.”
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| Hwang Dae-kwon’s “Baikal Skullcap,” left, and “Indian Lettuce” (1994) / Courtesy of Project Space Mium |
His wildflower garden also reignited his long-held passion for the arts. Although he studied agriculture in college, he remembered the moments when those around him who recognized his talents suggested he enroll in a college of fine art.
Eventually, he again convinced the prison warden to let him paint the wildflowers he cultivated with basic watercolors and a Monami ballpoint pen, the only kind of pen allowed in the prison back then.
“These weren’t just paintings. They were creations made while I was standing at the crossroads of life and death. I was about to go crazy, having to spend the rest of my life in a 2.5-square-meter cellblock. And these works were done just so I that I could stay sane and survive. They came to encapsulate every little part of my life.”
Hwang currently works as a farmer and environmental activist in Yeonggwang County, South Jeolla Province. He is also the author of “The Wildflower Letters,” which sold more than a million copies in Korea in 2002.
The exhibition “Grass” runs until July 3 at Project Space Mium in Seoul.
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