ART-PRESENTATION: Choi Jeong Hwa
Choi Jeong Hwa’s works explore everyday, mass produced plastic materials as a celebration of abundance, using these often kitsch materials as a reflection of our consumerism and throw away cultural attitudes to these objects. Considered a leading member in Korean Pop Art, Choi Jeong Hwa uses these objects repeatedly within large installation spaces, filled with bright colours that promote a sense of magical wonder.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma Archive
In the exhibition “Happy Happy”, Choi Jeong Hwa takes the viewer into a colorful plastic jungle. A closer look reveals that the resplendent paradise consists in fact of chains of domestic appliances stretching from the ceiling to the floor. The artist’s intent is not so much as to send an environmental message, but rather to explore our consumption of these everyday objects and materials, as well pushing the boundaries of what art is and what it can be. Choi Jeong Hwa is interested in ways of celebrating the superficial object as an art form itself, within our increasingly urban societies and fading natural and organic environments. The artist builds his large installations by combining local and Korean, new and old, unique and mass-produced elements, blending Korean pictorial tradition with global consumer culture. From ordinary consumer goods, such as colorful plastic vessels and cheap toys, Choi builds experiential and immersive spaces. At the same time, the works also call our attention to the materialism in which we live and the overabundance of goods, the ubiquity of plastic. Choi Jeong Hwa finds inspiration in the chaos and beauty of the city and its people, he wants to bring something new and collectively shareable into the public space. The exhibition also includes a participatory work of art.
Info: Curator: Arja Miller, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Mannerheiminaukio 2, Helsinki, Duration: 22/4-28/9/16, Days & hours: Tue & Sun 10:00–17:00, Wed–Fri 10:00–20:30, Sat 10:00-18:00, www.kiasma.fi
