Amid the heightened public interest in up-cycling, several young artists gathered to show works created with waste paper at the exhibition “2023 Box Gallery Exhibition: A Resounding Success in Art and Social Impact” held at the Gangnam Foundation for Arts & Culture Exhibition Hall in Yeoksam-dong, southern Seoul.

The exhibition, which ran from July 27 to Aug. 10, was joined by 13 artists -- Kim Gyu-rin, Kim Su-hyun, Kim Si-yeon, Kim hye-jeong, Catherine Ryu, Park Bo-min, Park Ji-hu, Tobby Bae, Suh Ji-an, Lee Seo-hyun, Rachel Lee, Olivia Lim and Luke Hwang – who dedicated months of work to create the featured works.

The exhibition was organized by Youth Impact, inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals.

“For the project, the young artists collected cardboard boxes from the elderly individuals living in poverty, purchasing them at three times the selling price to help them financially. The boxes were transformed into canvases, becoming a blank slate for the young artists to express their imagination,” said Suh Ji-an, who led the project.

Founded in 2020, Youth Impact is an education technology startup based in Seoul that aims to provide project-based extracurricular activities that are affordable for youths worldwide. It aims to offer the youths hands-on experiences and creative activities outside the classroom.

The exhibition featured a section dedicated to showing how the abandoned cardboard boxes collected from the elderly people were reproduced into a canvas, including the process of gluing together three sheets of cardboard paper. A handcart with cardboard piled up was displayed at the center of the exhibition hall to show an example of discarded cardboard, which is commonly seen in our neighborhoods.