akive

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Choi Jae-eun, a Korean artist based in Japan and Germany, is holding an exhibition titled “-verse” at Kukje Gallery K2 in Jongno-gu, Seoul, exploring the communication between nature and people.

Viewers are invited into a dark sky full of stars when they enter the gallery. When observed closely, there are three video screens facing in three directions in the darkened space. Titled “Finitude,” the video features the night sky over Storkow, Germany, as well as the sound of the artist walking around. The eight hour video is played in real time and though the screen might look like a still frame, the sky slowly changes.

Born in 1953, Choi moved to Japan in 1976 to study fashion, but seeing works of Fluxus artists led her to become an artist. She is well-known for her ongoing “World Underground Project,” in which she buried paper in 11 different places in seven countries from 1986 and later dug them up to show the different levels of discoloration.

She was the first Korean artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Japan in 2010 and moved to Germany afterwards in an attempt to move into conceptual art.

The works included in this exhibit were mostly created in Germany where she looked up at the sky for hours.

“People think that there are few chances to actually recognize finiteness and infinity in their life. However, I throw the fundamental question of feeling one’s finitude in front of a limitless world,” Choi said. “I felt the real time video makes the human finitude collide with the infinity of nature.”

On the second floor of the gallery, Choi presented more conceptual works. In the middle of the gallery, papers are scattered around an elementary school chair. “I got the small chair reminiscent of childhood. I love old things with time in them,” Choi said at a press conference for the exhibit Wednesday.

“Verse_Puglia, Italy, 2012” is a series of 50 photos of sunrise captured by Choi in Italy. She said she took pictures of the sky at an Italian beach at one minute intervals.

“The Myriad of Things” looks like a series of prints, but actually they are drawings by Choi on pages of discarded books. The verses, such as “OLD PINE TREE THAT HAS LIVED 1001 YEARS” and “A GIRL WITH A NAME LUCY,” are Choi’s momentary thoughts. This could be an extension of the artist’s “World Underground Project” as she works with used books.

Yoo Jin-sang, an art critic and the artistic director of the 7th International Media Art Biennale, said Choi’s works explore immateriality, which is rare for Korean contemporary art. “Many works are based on reality and incorporeity is not often treated by contemporary artists and that’s what makes Choi’s works more meaningful,” Yoo said.

The exhibit runs through Nov. 22 and admission is free. For more information, visit www.kukjegallery.com or call (02) 735-8449.

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