Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Alchemist of everyday life
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Choi Jeong-hwa’s “The Free Time of Flowers”
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Choi Jeong-hwa creates art for everyone
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Red and green baskets weaved into towers stand in front of Culture Station Seoul 284, the former Seoul Station building, now transformed into an art museum. Passers-by look at the sculpture with curiosity because it is made of familiar everyday objects, while the location is used in a manner that goes far beyond their expectations.
This is Choi Jeong-hwa’s “The Everyday Happy Together of Flowers,” which is an introduction to a colorful feast of unique objects and unexpected surprises at Choi’s exhibit “Natural Color, Multiple Flower Show,” which requires plastic caps and lids as admission.
“You Are Flowers,” an inflatable robot that keeps collapsing, incorporates a view of Seoul into a part of the artwork. / Courtesy of Culture Station Seoul 284
Choi can be labeled in multiple ways — installation artist, art director, interior designer and collector. Reflecting such versatility, instead of using the space as a white cube gallery, Choi explored the historic station-turned-museum and created works that correspond to the characteristics of each space.
Upon entering the main gate of Culture Station Seoul 284, visitors find themselves facing another tower (“The Free Time of Flowers”) — this time made of colorful burlap bags. “It’s a lofty hall, but one cannot hang something from the top. So I piled up these light fabric bags,” Choi said.
He placed a handcart full of plastic napa cabbage, real gold flowers and an enlarged medal (“The Whatchamacallit of Flowers”) in the former VIP lounge, and installed a large, gold-colored inflatable crown (“The Meaning (Law) of Flowers”) in the former lady’s waiting room.
Choi Jeong-hwa poses with his work “The Everyday Happy Together of Flowers,” a tower of colorful plastic baskets.
The 53-year-old artist transferred virtually everything from his studio in Jongno 5-ga, central Seoul to the exhibition venue. “It is a perfect location for a ‘plastic hunter,’ close to traditional markets from where it is easy to collect garbage,” Choi said.
Choi works with mass produced materials as a celebration of abundance as well as reflection of consumerism. He has been collecting a variety of things for decades and most of his collections — from vintage plastic dolls to genuine shaman’s tools — are currently on display at the exhibit.
He pointed to a battered yellow plastic chair with a piece of polystyrene tied on top of it. “I was fascinated by the aesthetic quality of this chair, which was a makeshift of a market merchant. Since then I’ve been discovering and collecting artistic objects from the street.”
“The Floral Forest”
Choi is internationally acclaimed and spends a lot of time abroad, preparing and exhibiting his works. Whenever he visits foreign cities, Choi heads to markets and flea markets instead of museums. “Museum is serious and oppressive. I’d rather browse markets to find the object that speaks to me. I have to keep my eyes peeled,” the artist explained.
“The Floral Forest” and “The Floral Palace” on the first floor are like a wacky museum of life history, as Choi displays super hero figures inside traditional chests and puts masks on old shamanic paintings. He even brought tables and chairs from his atelier. Choi said all these objects are his “teachers.”
He referred to the space as an “incubator,” since most of objects there hadn’t been ripe for the right purpose yet. “It feels like showing all my internal organs to the visitors. I have revealed everything I have and wonder what I am going to do in the future,” Choi said.
“The Bone of Flowers”
“The Speed (Ruins) of Flowers” consists of abandoned construction materials from the 1920s, Choi discovered at the warehouse of the station, and an array of colorful chandeliers swinging above the construction wastes. Next to this site of wreckage is a heap of small, colorful magnets (“The Flower Play”), of which visitors can touch and move around as they want, as Choi cleverly contrasts the idea of destruction and construction.
Some might describe Choi’s plastic works as “kitschy,” but he says his art is rather divine. “My plastic connects between the sacred and the secular. Interpreting my work as kitschy is like looking at the finger pointing to the moon, not the moon,” the artist said.
Choi’s art is not difficult or abstruse. “Your heart is my art” is Choi’s motto. He does not define his art, but believes that the viewers complete his work.
“The Speed (Ruins) of Flowers”
“Hanging a fancy artwork on the wall is not the only way to appreciate art. Everyone is artist and everything is art,” he said.
“The Mandala of Flowers,” a lively array of plastic caps in various colors and sizes, on the second floor is an example. The “admission fee” is for this piece and the visitors can freely add their contributions to the artwork.
Choi is a man of versatility. He provided objects for “Bul-Ssang,” a repertoire of the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company which is to be staged at the National Theater of Korea on Oct. 10 and 11. The dance piece incorporates traditional dance and martial arts from Asian countries with Buddhist statues and popular culture figures created by Choi.
For more information about the artist, visit www.koreanartistproject.com.