My mother-in-law just came back from a package tour to North Korea. I kid you not, it's a popular destination among chinese women of a certain age. One of the attractions is the chance to see the performances by the North Korean children's dance and singing groups. To people of mom-in-law's generation, this social realist mass display is still compelling entertainment. Wow!

Here are is one public monuments, scanned from a postcard book which she brought back. I don't yet have the full debrief from her, but if there is more to share on the monuments and urban landscape I shall certainly pass it on!





More details by clicking on the image and coming to the Flickr page where it is hosted. Notice that this monument is devoid of monumentality. Despite the large size of the central figure as compared to the people entering in single file stage right, the monument seems like a toy or model. It seems to lack internal scale, that sense of proportion that can makes even a tiny stone, say a Chinese jade bi, seem as imposing as a monument.

Technorati Tags: public art, North Korea, sculpture, tourism

# posted @ 11:28 PM