2 Korean artists bring American culture

By Ines Min

Staff reporter

American writer and philosopher Elbert Hubbard once said that "Art is not a thing, it is a way." On a similar vein, for New-York based Korean artists Choi Won-jung and Yoon Hee-seop, art is their route to explore their inner selves and conflicts, influenced in part by their location.

Arario Gallery in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, is hosting an exhibition by the pair, who previously held most of their exhibitions in the United States.

Choi and Yoon both moved to New York around 2004 to earn their masters' degrees in art. Their time abroad has influenced their work, with observers asking organizers where the artists were from on seeing their work.

Yoon focuses on using lines and collages to record her memories. Taking photographs of cluttered spaces and idiosyncratic piles of evidence, the artist then free-hands an imitation of the photograph. The challenge: Yoon does not erase and so-called "mistakes" are simply drawn over with heavier, bolder lines.

"It reflects how my perception has changed over time and makes me question my initial perception," Yoon said. "Paradoxically, greater concentration and more lines make the drawn objects less clear."

Her expansive wall collages of black masking tape on Mylar seem not to stick to their supports but flow naturally around them. The massive clouds of plastic become chaotic forms, organized in a determined manner. The overall effect is reminiscent of a sketch artist claiming a sidewalk or a torn wall in graffiti art.

Yoon's pen and paper collages cover everything from the Eiffel Tower to filing cabinets and English and Korean lettering. All of her works are constructed in parts, which enables her to reassemble larger pieces in a space accordingly. This flexibility is an aspect that makes her work inviting, like a hand beckoning toward freewill. Yoon seems to shrug off regulations that define artistic endeavors, instead choosing to find motivation for her own self-exploration.

"The more I see, the less I believe in the accuracy of reality of the images I draw."

Choi, on the other hand, creates her artwork in the search of clarity within the two colliding cultures she now holds. The exhibition is showcasing her work "Fish + Feather," a hanging freestyle mobile of hot glue gun-made figures: fish skeletons interwoven with feathers.

"I feel like it's a meeting of two cultures," the artist said. "When I think about it, fish are very Eastern, while feathers are associated with the West." In film and other cultural depictions from the Western world, she explained, feathers are a common motif, found as quills or decoration on hats.

This search for the space in between two things, the transitional, is what intrigues Choi the most, is what she relates to. "I'm between the extraordinary and the ordinary," she said. "I am both at different times.

Her latest works have been portraits of faces, some of which were drawn from the faceless "Wanted" ads of the classifieds. Blank eyes and deep, hard lines that form their masks capture idiosyncrasies while remaining anonymous.

"I'm still searching for the things that are 'certain,' by repeating the process of evolution, atrophy and adaptation," Choi said. "However, my gaze is fixed on the world and myself, at times through a telescope, and at other times through a microscope."

"Draw" is on display through June 27 at Arario Gallery in Samcheong-dong, located a 15 minute walk from exit 1 of Anguk Station on subway line 3. Visit www.arariogallery.com