The power of K-pop: Hwa Young Jung and Wild Natures

Artist and AND Creative Associate Hwa Young Jung has been working on Wild Natures, a long-term project exploring the experiences of migrant communities in the climate crisis discussion. As part of our collaborative partnership within the AND Creative Associates programme, Hwa Young has been sharing her socially engaged practice with us as we utilise this opportunity to better support our research and development.

Hear more from Creative Associate Hwa Young about Wild Nature’s latest iteration below, using K-pop as a vehicle to creatively connect with issues around migration, biodiversity loss and collective belonging.

My 6 months as an AND Creative Associate has been spent half reading, thinking and formulating a theory of practice. The other half has been practising and testing this theory with people. I’m really grateful to have this gift of time and money to explore these circles of interest. It’s given me time to think through why I’m doing this.

I wanted to share my love of living closer with animals – latent but fired up during Covid, when I was amazed by the possibility of animals taking over cities – with others. This desire for thriving together with more wildness is my antidote to the closing of communities I see, feel and live with. The ‘how’ and ‘why’ of animal migration is understood through a broad historical lens of the development of the modern world and how imperialism and capitalism have produced new ecologies. All these animals – intentionally or not of human design – have landed in other lands and adapted to new and novel environments. This is true for the movement of people – intentional or forced. Rather than focus on going ‘back’ to some imagined period of abundance, can we marvel in the novel ecosystem we have now, and ask how best can we live and flourish with each other?

About Wild Natures – K-pop

The outcome of this iteration of Wild Natures is to produce a K-Pop music video about urban wildlife often considered ‘pests’ or ‘vermin’, from the perspective of people with experience of migration. This project is about belonging, explored through animal classification, examining ideas of ‘native’, ‘alien’, ‘feral’ and ‘invasive’ species, who belongs where, and how these decisions are made by and for humans and non-humans. Animals become our avatars, allowing harmful treatment we’ve experienced to be expressed at a distance.

During our sessions, we have been exploring the intersection of biodiversity loss from encroaching urbanisation with the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment (leading to adoption of increasingly hostile border enforcements) as symptoms of the same root cause – the inability to live together with difference.

Wild Natures deploys the phenomenal power of K-Pop to imagine living in a world without hostile borders, where movement for all animals – including humans – is a natural phenomenon.

How are we doing this / who are we?

Wild Natures is a loose assemblage of humans scattered along these three circles of interest. We’ve run three pilot events – each focusing on a circle trying to create overlaps and intersections. In the beginning the sweet spot was elusive, but as we’ve started forming relationships with each other – the knowledge and enthusiasm for each area of expertise has started to rub up against each other. The core group are from Asylum Link Merseyside (service users and volunteers), and we are picking up more interested parties along the way. The core group are from Asylum Link Merseyside (service users and volunteers), the Liverpool East & South East Asian Network, and we are picking up more interested parties along the way.

Events

Urban Nature Walk – Sun 12 Oct 2025
Led by Queer Ecologist Tom, we walked from Albert Docks, starting at the Museum of Liverpool towards Toxteth, observing the animals who are always around but often ignored. We saw gulls, jellyfish, spiders, rat runs, and had a discussion about the notion of ‘pests’ and ‘weeds’.

Intro to K-Pop – Sat 22 Nov 2025
Led by K-Pop fans Fethie and Yas, we had a spectacular audio / video presentation and got to understand K-Pop timelines, formation of groups, the idea of ‘concepts’ for groups and albums, the industry and fandom. Concepts – akin to overarching themes of a group or album, it tickled my ‘world-building’ bone, a practice I use heavily in my work. The excitement here arises from the world-building being a group process, rather than dictated by an Entertainment Agency.

Migration Stories – Sat 6 Dec 2025
Led by mental health activist Advocate, this was the most delicate session, held with gentleness by our facilitator. Through personal objects, we heard stories of how some of us got to Liverpool to claim asylum. We rounded our time off by looking through cards of the animals we encountered during the first workshops, and added more names from each of our countries.

At every event, I get a temperature check of how much closer we are getting to the sweet spot. This is our group from the last event. You can see how much we’ve developed from the first meeting!

The fantasy of K-pop can offer other possibilities for creating a thriving environment for humans and non-humans on our shared home planet, in the intersections of climate emergency and migrant justice.

Who’s with us? There’s always more room on this K-pop band wagon. For more information on how to participate in the project, get in touch with Hwa.

Hwa Young is a Creative Associate at AND. Find out more about the Creative Associate programme.