They see things a little differently; these creative geniuses who find and craft with discarded elements, often way exceeding the results of the run of the mill artist who walks the straight and narrow.
What is real? Where am I living? What do I perceive is the real? Are invisible things like my emotions, supernatural phenomena, dreams, God, Tao – real? Do they have some space of their own? Are people really living in the same plane or dimension even though they feel differently about the same situation?
A face appears as if by magic, providing no inkling to its constituent parts: rolled up old newspapers and magazines.
Phew! Questions! A lot of questions! The artist Yun Woo Choi of Korea asks these of the people at large. The cauldron of questioning thoughts bubbling within probably led him to create a way to express them and in his own unique way even address them.
Korean artist Yun-Woo Choi has achieved international attention for his dalliance with larger than life sculptures constituted out of old newspapers and magazines, laboriously built into forms exhibiting a fearless attitude of play. Mostly impossible to determine a rhyme or reason for his works, this creative genius is ever on a self assigned project armed with theories of physics and of course his guiding lights of Taoist and Buddhist philosophies.
Certainly trans-cultural and intended to engage, inspire and engender reflection in those who see them, his works take full command of the space they are placed in.
A horn, a saxophone, a funnel…go figure! One thing is certain though, the artwork is multifaceted, comment worthy and very inventive.
Yun-Woo Choi is an ardent reader of Brian Greene, a theoretical physics genius who says that there are not only three dimensions to life but actually fourteen and these can be proved scientifically. The artist therefore feels that with this idea of overlapping dimensions in place, invisible and intangible matter does exist in the hidden spaces so formed. This belief could well be the spawning pool for the final choice of shape and form of his works.
Opting for a material such as old vehicles of news and information which have a predetermined and temporary significance he juxtaposes it with his eternal and ongoing beliefs. He creates shapes that have a positive spin, after all he is up-cycling and that is a wow factor by itself, apart from the inimitable look of his jaw dropping masterpieces.
Old newspapers and resin alchemised into art which is both awe-inspiring and engaging.
They say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, and this is so true in this case. Using one of the most abundant and widely spread materials, garbage, Yun-Woo Choi adds a bit of spray paint or resin and boggles every mind that chances upon it.
Different groups and different nationalities have their own take on his works, but one thing is common they are impressed and go away silently making their own interpretations.
Text By Mala Bajaj
Photographs Courtesy The Artist
Contact:
email: yunwoostudio@gmail.com
