What You See, Unseen

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Using a wide variety of materials- from shopping trolleys to video to
food- Choi Jeong Hwa’s playful practice comments on the privileged
status of art and its institution. His most well-known installations
are spectacular inflatable blooms. These colorful public works create
a bridge between the modern world and the cosmological realm
of Asian symbolism. The lotus, as a symbol of purity and divinity, is
rewritten as an immortal icon of commodity culture. And avid collector
of urban detritus, Choi Jeong Hwa is regarded as a founding
member of the Korean Pop Art movement.
Using a broad range of media and materials including video, molded
plastic, inflatable fabrics, shopping trolleys, real and fake food, lights,
wires, and kitsch Korean artifacts, Choi Jeong-Hwa’s practice blurs
the boundaries between art, graphic design, industrial design, and
architecture. Along with artists such as Bahc Yiso, Beom Kim, and
Lee Bul, Choi was part of a generation whose unique and varied practices
gave rise to Seoul’s burgeoning art scene in the 1990s. Trained
in Korea during a period of rapid modernization and economic
growth, Choi’s work acknowledges and internalizes the processes
of consumption and the distribution of goods and has resulted in his
being recognized as the leader of Korea’s pop art movement. Often
infusing his works with a hint of humor, Choi creates a monumental
installation with everyday objects. His works also touch on issues
of accessibility in art and contemporary culture, concepts of individual
authorship and originality in art, and they comment on the
privileged environment of art institutions and the prized status of
artworks amidst a consumer-frenzied world.
Choi Jeong Hwa