CHOI JEONG HWA

Choi Jeong Hwa
Hubble Bubble 2010
Installation view Cockatoo Island Sydney

Artist Choi Jeong Hwa installing Hubble Bubble 2010

Choi Jeong Hwa, born 1961 in Seoul, Korea, lives and works in Seoul, Korea.

Choi Jeong Hwa’s artworks 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.

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.

Choi Jeong Hwa’s installations invite the audience to experience these objects and materials in a new way. Viewers can touch, walk through and around the installations, creating movement through mobile, hanging pieces. Choi Jeong Hwa challenges the status and reverence of artworks in galleries and museums by creating artworks from non traditional materials as installations, away from these formal institutions, that can be touched and experienced by an audience.

“Your shopping is my art,”

– Choi Jeong Hwa

“Plastic doesn’t decompose. Even when it’s old it looks like new, and it’s recyclable.”

– Choi Jeong Hwa

“First of all, plastic does not rot. I contemplate the differences between a real flower and a plastic flower a lot. The real flower can be ripped and will deteriorate in a short time, but the plastic flower is immortal. And the interesting thing is that there is such thing as a fake flower that looks real and a fake flower that looks fake. I played around with these concepts of plastic, real, and fake; and that’s how the plastic series started. Another thing is that I like collecting old plastic. When I look at my collection, I tend to get a lot of ideas.”

– Choi Jeong Hwa

Choi Jeong Hwa
1000 Doors 2009
Installation

Choi Jeong Hwa
Flower Tree 2008
metal
70 x 70 x 80 cm

THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:

ARTIST

Choi Jeong Hwa, born Seoul, South Korea
founding member of Pop Art in Korea
object, installation artist as well as, graphic design and architecture

ARTWORK

installation and object art, using found and everyday materials
bright coloured plastics
objects repeated on mass to create an artwork or installation
using scale and pattern

AUDIENCE

interacts with the artwork, can walk through it, touch it, move it.
memories associated with the objects used in the installations
reacts to new environment, sense of wonder from new forms created and bright colours used

WORLD