In terms of preparation in Myoung Young Choi(hereinafter referred to as “Choi”)’s work, there’s only some paint, a few painting tools and a canvas. And those elements do not make a huge contribution to his outcome or the degree of completion. Further, the process which such elements turn into an artistic objet through Choi is just beyond description. His artwork is closely related to the intention which comes from the fluctuation of health, uncomfortableness, emotional amplitude, and the variation of physical energy. And such elements come to the front during the tumult of joy and agony, possession and desertion.
There is a particular form for each plane, and the forms are; fingerprints on the canvas in 1975, awls penetrating Korean handmade papers and rolling on the canvas in 1980, for example. And from 1990s, Choi has been creating different conditions of the plane with the brushstroke on the canvas. Choi has been working on his artwork over 50 years since the foundation exhibition of Origin, and the artworks have always been flat, simple-colored planes. The artwork is processed with his own way- with no particular event or noise. It provides only monotone, simple-colored planes that seem completely irrelevant from the original intention. Following the rules made by himself just like a penance, like an ascetic, his artwork became a shadow of routines.
His work <Conditional Plane Surface> is created particularly with his intention of being closely related to the ingredients, and of meeting ‘alter ego’ rather than ‘the matter of values.’
Through this artwork, he gives himself into the rhythm of the body and the system of the moments which can be long-lasting and renewable. At the same time, subtle circumstances of the routines made it possible to encounter the unhampered power of thinking through its distinctive repeatability. In other words, it is the ‘subtle, delicate vertical/horizontal strokes’ recording the co-existence of true and current lives. This is a certain artistic method which has been being used for a long time, and largely contributes to the transformation of the way of thinking-of neither strongly arguing a certain topic nor suppressing it.
Choi’s work causes sensation by inducing constantly-changing subjects, various problems, and different preferences into a ‘particular space.’ He uses strokes and layer techniques at the same time, and the briefness of such strokes, as a kind of a figurative form itself, created non-image rhythms without spacing by integrating and tuning his body with the nature. This concept is at the level of asceticism beyond the scission of profound, and cursory discourse. It rather became an ideogram which does not mean anything in his entire life and his solitude. Therefore, the rhythm Choi’s strokes created becomes an evidence of life by lapse of time, and it is more like a vibration existing between the space and the time as in the meaning of a sensuous breathing or the breeze, rather than sole blank. His strokes are a continuity in neutral, which induces us into the world of unanalyzable encounter.
There are some implications about seasons in Choi’s artwork. As a sensitive sign of nature and a climatic scent, there are subtle changes on the work’s surface. There is no written description or whatsoever about the seasons, but the implications are indeed being made by unutterable elements. The very reason that creates such a sense of the season is a layer of air with very tiny, fine elements and objects. Such sense in this context can be seen as an essence of human, not a mere weather condition, and it resembles much with his life. Like this, his artwork clearly shows the path for a life of a completely new form. Just like a meteorologist doing numerous experiments to know the daily atmospheric condition, his artwork is countless records of his own routines, creating discontinuous web of space and time with fluid strokes at the same time. Choi’s each artwork individualizes itself into a unique form and focuses largely on the nuance. This characteristic is to reject the uniformity of modern society, started from Black Monochrome Painting which was exhibited before the foundation of Origin in 1963. It is an act of self-respect in order to have an autonomous language and to sensitively capture the materials that change. And it can also be seen as an act to guide us into a place where nobody can destroy in terms of the matters surrounding and suppressing him. Every single verbal activity stops at the place and it is so pure that no more interpretation or explanation is needed. It is literally the moment of the time without any additional meaning, enabling his vertical/horizontal strokes and routines co-exist. It is the immobility with movements, not a segment for a scene but a simultaneity itself. In other words, his strokes are a ‘preservation of a state’ of a brief stoppage and the immobility referring to one as well as all, and ‘stop as well as moment.’
In a nutshell, Choi’s work is simple-formed, not instructive, and clearly not sensual. It is not a fiction, not made up artificially, but created through a chemistry process between his own, inner emotions. In this process, the element called contingency intervenes. This is the very stage of nothing(無) which appears naturally during the process of strokes and layers, making the work more sincere and faithful. The object, image, or the motive are evaporated, then absorbed into the circumstances, and ultimately stopped for a moment to become a significant impact to imply the reality through ‘giving the body’ by Choi. A small enlightenment from this process is the attention to unfixed, segmented vertical/horizontal strokes, layer process weaving the routines, and a momentarily stopped moment. Then the null, general colors are blocked, and there exists undescribable monotone colors. Just like the monotonous light flickers after numerous scenes in the silent movie, Choi’s colorlessness is not an absence of color, but a subtle delicacy.
Blocked out, scarcely seen, invisible, speechless, pure colorless. The crossing of the simplest strokes and the most complex emotions stopped momentarily, ultimately revivifying routines into essence. At this moment, we encounter this stage of subtle delicacy where the most humane elements and the most inhumane objects are combined, and such enlightenment of strokes finally became a powerful nowness along with the ‘giving of the body’.
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