Wooson Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Art Basel Hong Kong 2019 under the 'Insights' section with a solo exhibition of Korean artist, Choi Byung-so (b. 1943) who has played a pivotal role in Daegu Contemporary Art Festival during 1970s which is evaluated as a centripetal force of Korean Contemporary Art Movement.
Choi Byung-so's method is already well known to us: drawing countless lines with pencils and ballpoint pens on newspaper, until pitch-black lines cover the entire surface and the paper is torn by the friction, finally reaching its physical limits. As a result, the newspaper is no longer legible and losing its original function however it reborn as a something completely new phenomenon with its enigmatic appearance, with its unidentifiable surface, which evokes the passing of time it absorbs. Although we realise that its raw material is the newspaper, we can't consider it as a newspaper anymore but it transformed to something very unique and special entity.
Then, how the ordinary banal mass products get a special value? Choi Byung-so may have had various reasons for choosing the everyday objects like a newspaper in 70's, and it was transitional period of historical situation changes rapidly both at home and abroad. Art rejected existing formalistic traditional ways of expression and innovated with new aesthetic perspectives and expressions while the Avant-Garde movement has been actively developed all over the world. On the other hand, the government was under the system of the Yushin dictatorship, the media was stifled and freedom of expression and communication was suppressed more than ever before. To Choi Byung-so in his early thirties who lived in such times, newspapers were the most easily accessible form of mass media of the time. Yet he was indignant about the fact that the media was not doing its role properly, and started to cross out newspaper articles with a ballpoint pen. This was the beginning of his work with newspapers.
He has been reflecting the social reality of his generation in his work, which he expressed by his crossing out the surface of the newspaper pages, changing the original function into a new, metaphoric significance with imaginary connotations. This shows that Choi Byung-So was confronted to the social, political and economical realities and reflected his social awareness through his way. It proves that he is an artist who pursued the experimental, avant-garde art not the L'Art pour l'art. It has a certainly important meaning of finding the origin of his work in the 1970s in the historical context.
However, his work should no longer be interpreted as an expression of anger against political injustice or social absurdity. At a first glance, the surface of his works look same but as the daily newspaper can't be never same, every moment of our life can't be repeated and physically limited. The creative practice of the artist cannot be continued if the human life reaches its physical limits.
However, human labour and time process, which are endlessly repeated by the creative praxis of the artist, will be accumulated in each artwork, while creating a new entity of the object presented as strange, enigmatic, unknown phenomenon. These unidentifiable objects give new, unique, specific values to the trivial everyday mass production, changing the limited, temporary function of newspaper into a poetic function of general, metaphoric, substantial value. Through endlessly repeated labor, through the visualization of time process Choi Byung-so demonstrates a certain identification of artistic practice and life. The exhibition will be included not only Byung-So Choi's recent works but also works from 1970s which are very rare to see for this special occasion in Art Basel Hong Kong.
Venue
Hong Kong Convention And Exhibition Centre
1 Harbour Rd,Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Opening Hours
Private View (by invitation only)
Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 2pm to 8pm
Thursday, March 28, 2019, 1pm to 5pm
Vernissage
Thursday, March 28, 2019, 5pm to 9pm
Public Days
Friday, March 29, 2019, 1pm to 8pm
(12 noon to 1pm VIP viewing only)
Saturday, March 30, 2019, 1pm to 8pm
(12 noon to 1pm VIP viewing only)
Sunday, March 31, 2019, 11am to 6pm
Wooson Gallery represents these artists: