SAM WOO-RAM CHOI

As a Korean artist living in New Zealand, I carry a sense of being between places. My life has been shaped by movement, memory, and the experience of diaspora. Celestial symbols appear often in both Eastern and Western traditions, yet I have found myself distanced from Western myths and interpretations of them. Their stories carried a sense of distance, as they spoke from traditions that did not echo my own cultural background. In response, I began to create my own expressions of the sun, moon, and stars—images that reflect my perspective and sense of belonging.

Stars, the sun, and the moon are at once familiar and distant, fixed yet shifting. They allow me to explore identity, presence, and connection. These symbols speak to how we exist alone and how we relate to others and the world around us. In the Together and Apart series, each star holds its own presence yet forms a quiet constellation when placed together, reflecting relationships that are fragile, balanced, and alive.

Memory of a Sun demonstrates how texture and mark-making can carry memory. The surface is built through layered gestures, subtle marks, and traces of movement, capturing the warmth, light, and emotional resonance of memory. These textures invite the viewer to feel both the process of making and the presence that emerges from human touch, bridging the symbolic and the personal.

Through these works, I aim to share not only an aesthetic experience but also a story of navigating multiple worlds of memory and movement, and of finding connection and meaning in both apartness and togetherness.

Text by Sam Woo-Ram Choi. Courtesy Jhana Millers