Every Sunday morning, if you visit Insadong in Seoul, you can meet a man who draws paintings on worn-out clothes. His name is Yoon Ho-seob, the professor of the Department of Visual Communication Design at Kookmin University. He is known as "T-shirt man in Insadong".
He draws the pictures on citizen's T-shirts on Insadong street from April to September every year. He imparts messages about environmental protection to people by drawing emblems of nature such as trees, dolphins and storks with vegetable dyes. The drawings on the T-shirts are a kind of environmental movement. This year is the 9th year since he started it. "When I prepared a gallery in 2001, I looked for T-shirts for my work. I found worn-out clothes in my wardrobe more than I expected. As an environmentalist, it was shameful to me. I painted on the T-shirts and exhibited them." he said. He draws pictures on shirts for citizens in several other places.
He started his environmental movement after he met a Japanese student in 1991. The student had a lot of concerns for environmental protection and kept asking him about environmental problems in Korea. He realized that environmental pollution in Korea was serious while he answered the questions and he started the environmental movement.
He emphasizes that he is not pursuing a large movement but practicing eco-friendly habits in his daily life. It is his essential habit that he commutes by bicycle or public transportation. He removed his refrigerator to decrease food waste and hasn't bought any new clothes for the last 10 years. "We should practice environmental protection in our daily lives."
His studio is filled with reusable waste. He mostly uses reusable waste in creating his work. He showed the reporter a ball, which was made from pieces of tape he had collected over 7 years. "This tape ball was made from waste. However, it is attractive rather than distasteful. It is one of my works."
He introduced the concept of "green design" to universities in Korea for the first time, which means eco-friendly design. He has continued his environmental protection campaign in education by teaching a new subject which combines design and environment since after he elected as a dean of the College of Design at Kookmin University in 1995.
He said that although people know about current situation of environmental pollution, they don't take a action protect the environment. "I hope that people will feel empathy with my activities and lectures. Environmental protection is not a difficult task which is only practiced by environmentalists. People can practice it easily in their daily lives," he emphasized.