"Your
shopping is my art," is how Choi Jeong Hwa expressively describes his loud
and vibrant installations, on view at REDCAT during his first solo exhibition in the U.S.
It
must have been a hell of a shopping trip for the Seoul-based founder of the Gaseum studio, whose visual
art draws from architecture as well as industrial and graphic design. Stocking up on cheap plastic goods,
inflatable palm trees, instruments, shoes, religious figurines, robots and toys, as well as kitsch in
general, he has transformed the gallery space into a marketplace.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, installation view at REDCAT Gallery 2007/08. © Choi Jeong Hwa © Photo Romy Petrick
Growing
up in Korea in the sixties, a time of rapid economic growth and the start of mass production of disposable
consumer goods, certainly left its stamp in Choi’s work. The exhibition, entitled “Truth”, embraces
and, at the same time, ridicules the combination of consumerism and pop culture. He puts cheap, mundane
goods on the same pedestal that is usually reserved for art in an effort to “restore the relationship
between art and everyday life,” because, as he puts it, “everyday life … is the stage and battlefield
of today’s art.”
In a society where consumerism has become the ultimate
driving force, cultural production and mass production, and also reproduction do not differ that much
for Choi. The faux Louis Vuitton leather sofa costs probably just as much as the possible real life
equivalent, while the bright green plastic Chinese cabbages go for US $ 100 a piece. 
Chinese
Cabbage, installation view at REDCAT Gallery 2007/08. © Choi Jeong Hwa © Photo Romy Petrick
“Architects and artists have no choice but to follow common people’s desire for beauty and balance,” says Choi, which means the re-evaluation of the notion of preciousness of objects, whether mass produced or unique. “Highly valued”, vibrant, red-colored Greco-Roman sculptures and silver Andy Warhol busts are today the equal of robots and junk toys in terms of appreciation and adoration.
Korean Contemporary Art, installation view at REDCAT Gallery 2007/08. © Choi Jeong Hwa © Photo Romy Petrick
While the flower arrangements are anything but flowers, piggy banks make for a decadent chandelier and a policeman decoy installs law and order. In keeping with the spirit of the supermarket-style arrangements, each and every piece on display is available for purchase.
Flower, Flower, installation view at REDCAT Gallery 2007/08. © Choi Jeong Hwa © Photo Romy Petrick
Links:
www.the-artists.org/artist/Choi_Jeong-Hwa.html
www.redcat.org/gallery/0708/choi.php
