Cody Choi (artist)
I first met Sun Choi in a classroom of a university. At that time, a student with an unfamiliar, strong feeling came in my class about the 20th cultural topographic map, and he was so serious that he could devour all the contents of the class. That was why I was very interested in the student. And when I heard later that he was the artist called Sun Choi who gained huge popularity among the young artists, I began to have a closer relationship with him. In those days, many young aspiring artists attending the lectures at various universities for years arranged an office at Samseongyo and established the lectures to teach the would-be artists like the secret private lessons every weekend for 5 years. Finally, he visited in the place, and he had a time to discuss on the artwork with the young artists. On seeing his serious, modest attitude, I thought that I met a good artist after a long time. His single-minded seriousness, undiminished enthusiasm, and considerable study impressed me. Sometime when I first saw his work, once again, I realized that he was a really good artist. When the artist Sun Choi finds the irrationality of human beings as an individual living in a society, he personally studies and experiences it without hesitation. And through such learning and knowledge, he subtly leads it into an artwork. However, he doesn’t decorate the artwork and make it into a dry theoretical bundle or visual basket. That is because what are ingrained in his work is not the traces of theory and knowledge, or aesthetic appreciation and design, but breath, blood, and practice. As such, his work appears to be alive.
In the United States in the 1960s, the early conceptual art began to show the anti-aesthetics current revolting against the commercial success of abstract expressionism and resisting the aesthetic point of view. In this respect, we could say that this is to be immersed not in art that only intended to show, but in the real meaning of art. This art movement was very popular among the young thinking artists in the ’70s, and then, it was known in the world of scholarship through the journal ‘October’ (American art review magazine that established the criteria of postmodern art in the United States in the 1980s) led by Rosalind E. Krauss and Hel Foster. As a result, it was established as a new current of art in the late ’70s. Finally, the movement opened a new horizon for postmodern art in the United States in the 1980s. However, at some point, as the artistic current was embraced by commercialism again, it won a worldwide reputation as a commercial mainstream in the field of art. But, by contrast, its early innocent appearance is changed so drastically that we can’t find the early traces. In the 2000s, this trend spread to the young artists in the UK. And combined with the apocalyptic cultural phenomena, it still exists as a postmodern syndrome in the cyber era. In Korea in the late ’90s, thanks to information in the art magazines transmitted or imported abruptly by the artists studied abroad, the last stage of postmodernism in the US was very popular among the artists in Korea, and in the early 2000s, as another artists studied abroad introduced their awkward, clumsy works mimicking the anti-aesthetic installation works made in the US in the 60-70s, they were also considered as the real, fresh artists. It might be another phenomenon similar to the shock faced when we first encountered the fashion magazines in the ’60s printed coarsely while we read the fashion magazines in the ’90s that was too sophisticated. However, if the position of the viewer is changed into the people in Western art scene, despite the fact that these attempts are fresh to us, they might think that the phenomena appeared in their 60-70s appeared again in Korea in the 2000s. If we see his work as a visual gesture only from this anti-aesthetic point of view, we could mistake it for tracing back and recycling the anti-aesthetic fustiness. In my experience, however, the artist Sun Choi is not such an artist. He doesn’t mimic the semblance of the anti-aesthetics in Western society and he doesn’t use the half-automatism as a diction through intentionally showing a clumsy installation, either. That is because in his work, all the ideas, actions, contemplation, and compositions are centered on his own life and his surrounding environment. Therefore, this work is his own story, and on the very point, we could say it is real. His approach, suddenly in a flesh, reminds us of Francis Alice’s beautiful wandering, but unlike Francis Alice, the artist Sun Choi, relying on art, re-transforms the extreme point of irrationality into a beautiful anger. This is his artistic talent. And that is why we are moved by his work.
Cody Choi
He is not only an artist, but also a cultural theorist. He held many exhibitions in many countries, including US, Europe, and China. Since 2015, his retrospective exhibition ¡°Culture Cuts, Cody Choi¡± has been touring Europe, including the Kunsthalle Dusseldorf of Germany, Musée des beaux-arts de Marseille (France), the exhibition hall at the University of Malaga (Spain), the National Chemnitz Museum of Germany. He was the exclusive artist belonging to the Kukje Gallery in the ’90s. And he is now the exclusive artist belonging to the PKM Gallery, and he is also introduced as a leading artist at the Korean Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale. He wrote many books in foreign language, including 『Culture Cuts¡»(KÖnig Books, Germany 2015), 『 Fairwell to the 20th Century 』 (Deitch Projects, NewYork, USA 2000). He also wrote books for Korean readers, including 『 The 20th Cultural Topographic Map 』 , revised edition (culture grapher, 2010), 『 Contemporary Cultural Topographic Map 』 (culture grapher 2010).
Sun Choi | Art works 