Elly Cho defies boundaries in art

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Tue, September 26, 2023 | 00:57

Arts

Elly Cho defies boundaries in art

Posted : 2019-08-06 17:07

Updated : 2019-08-06 19:21

Artist Elly Cho with her works at her studio in central Seoul, Monday. Cho will present a video installation "The Eclipse: Recognized by the Sound" during Art Asia 2019 at COEX from Thursday through Sunday. Korea Times photo by Kwon Mee-yoo

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Artist Elly Cho is a person of versatility, exploring various themes through painting, media art, performance and public art.

Cho studied an undergraduate degree in painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and shifted to media art during her graduate course. One of her notable works include "Kinematics: a state of mind," a black-and-white video screened on the billboards of New York's Times Square in 2012 through the Times Square Art program "Midnight Moment."

"Most artists these days work with multiple mediums, but my works vary even more," Cho said at an interview with The Korea Times at her studio in central Seoul, Monday.

Cho will present "The Eclipse: Recognized by the Sound" for a special exhibition during the Art Asia 2019, an art fair centering on Asian contemporary art held at COEX from Thursday through Sunday.

The three-channel video installation is on public view for the first time, four years after its completion in 2015. At Art Asia 2019, the video will be displayed with still photos printed on watercolor paper.

"It is a very personal work, so I agonized over the right time to reveal it. When Art Asia asked me to present this for the special exhibit, I was a bit surprised," Cho said.

The 14-minute video traces pieces of the artist's memory on growing up in nature on Jeju Island and the cityscape of Seoul in a whimsical way. The moment of the eclipse symbolizes her brother's unexpected death from a medical accident when Cho was studying in London.

Elly Cho's "The Eclipse: Recognized by the Sound" / Courtesy of the artist

"It (Death of my brother) was a turning point in my life. I had a desire for a change and switched from painting to media art and performance. If I had continued to pursue painting, I might be at a different place now," Cho said. "Back then in the late 1990s, electronic and Internet art began to emerge and since I also learned video art and photography while doing my undergraduate, I was able to take the path of change."

The form of art Cho executes these days is multidisciplinary.

"I have to put together all I learned in my works, and painting could not satisfy me. In media art, I use visual image, music, movement and lines and work with actors, dancers and film directors," she said.

Cho seeks to give the viewers a highly-charged yet nostalgic awareness of lost things through "The Eclipse."

"This work is autobiographical. I wanted to review how I grew up and became an artist like this. The project snowballed and I worked with a record number of staff members and filmed in three countries," the artist said.

Cho starts her video-making with writing scripts, which takes the most time. "Because it is where I conceive the idea and it takes shape. Then I continue to create imagery through drawing and photography, like a storyboard for a movie. As I put the puzzle together, the image gets clearer," she explained.

As contemporary art blurs boundaries and embraces new technologies, Cho also took interest in something new and expanded her scope.

"I am a constructive person who is always learning something new. I took an artificial intelligence (AI) course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year and am currently working on a new media art piece featuring AI, which is slated for debut in September," she said.

Another new concern for Cho is the unification of North and South Korea.

"I took a course on unification at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and realized how ignorant we are about the situation as people living in a divided country. I learned about the future-oriented values of unification of the two Koreas and how we should prepare for it. As an artist, I pursue peaceful unification through my works," she said. "My first attempt will be realized in the form of a performance later this year and I am looking for an appropriate space."

Cho said artists should be open to all possibilities. "Previously, I mostly worked through funding for arts, but now I often get commissioned to work as my personal connections got broader," Cho said.

meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr