Wall paintings drawn by Kyung Hee University students Yonhap

By Kim Bo-eun

It has become a delightful experience for people to walk the road from the main gate of Kyung Hee University in northeastern Seoul, to nearby Hoegi Subway Station. The walls along the road are covered with paintings drawn by Kyung Hee students studying fine arts.

The students have been gradually filling the exterior walls of small shops and houses lining the road with paintings since 2009 as a public art project that is part of their coursework.

Around 200 mural paintings have been decorating the walls over the past four years, according to Kyung Hee.

The paintings reflect the thoughts and concerns of the students.

One of them shows a young woman and two men in suits sitting next to each other in a row, facing the front, looking rather tense. They are in a job interview under the telltale pressure of competition.

But upon taking a closer look, one will be able to recognize the faces as Yu Gwansoon, Jeon Tae-il and Lee Han-yeol, great names in Korea’s modern history.

“Although they were heroes of their time, we thought that if they were born in our generation, they would have had the same concerns as us, such as finding jobs,” said a student who painted the mural.

Another painting shows a man holding a bunch of flowers, looking down at the ground after seeing the girl he likes kissing another man.

“Residents had opposed the idea of drawing on the walls at first, but as time passed, they started giving the students drinks and snacks while they worked on the murals,” said Professor Park Younggyun, who is in charge of the project.