{"id":893,"date":"2020-01-19T23:27:30","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T23:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dartmagazine.com\/?p=893"},"modified":"2020-02-24T21:17:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T21:17:20","slug":"janghan-choi-at-the-korean-cultural-center-in-tenafly-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=893","title":{"rendered":"Janghan Choi at the Korean Cultural Center in Tenafly, New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Thalia Vrachopoulos, Ph.D. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Human evolution II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Choi\u2019s multifaceted installations employ the abstracted human form in movement as sign language thus demonstrating a relationship to collective memory and Jungian archetypes, and in their essentialized forms, to cave painting also. Human Evolution I<\/em>, 2019 which a triptych of neutral background with navy and puce colored signs and a central tondo<\/em> with rune-like shapes, reveals the artist\u2019s interest in pre-historic cultures. \n\nHis works in general and this work in particular, can be read in terms of the four main Jungian archetypes the anima\/animus representing our true self, the shadow or our negative side, the persona which is our public side, and the self that is a unified whole symbolized by a circle such as the ones in Choi\u2019s works. As Jung believed, these archetypes represent globally accepted innate forms that are part of patterns of human behavior. In addition, the psychologist found that the idea behind these \u2018primordial images\u2019 or mythical\/archaic archetypes were part and parcel of any human. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These types of archetypical forms are used by many\nwell-known contemporary artists including the Israeli Michal Rovner. But,\nwhereas Rovner works with new media as in her Tablets<\/em>, 2004, Choi for\nthe most part, works with mixed media and painting. Rovner references specific\ntraumatic events like the Palestinian crisis, Choi looks to engage with the\nhistory of humanity in general. These cyphers act as foil for Choi to examine\nand deploy cultural sign as language that involves looking into the human past\nto find the present. Both Rovner and Choi use what appear to be letters but\nwhich are abstracted human forms in dance-like movement that leave their trace\non the page as does writing or inscribing on a page. Whereas Rovner\nre-interprets history through new media, Choi re-discovers and pays tribute to\nit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choi\u2019s drawings can be seen as marks of communication and at\nthe same time as cave painting and human evolution or traces of human presence.\nIn his wall installation Human Evolution II<\/em>, 2019 Choi uses a puce color\nbackground upon which are inscribed simplified human figures in shades of\nbrown, rust and white. Because both the white and the colored figures depict\nhuman forms through linear networks much like cave paintings or Greek geometric\nvase paintings, there is a resultant figure ground ambiguity that takes place\nwhere we read the white as background and as figure and vice versa. This type\nof inscription is similar to sgraffito <\/em>used on Greek pottery but also\nhas a relationship to ancient Chinese oracle bones. These sgraffitoed bones\nwere usually animal scapulae that were inscribed by the King in order to divine\nthe seasonal cycle\u2019s production a practice that began in the Shang Dynasty. Oracle\nbones were also known as dragon bones. This practice after the Chou Dynasty was\nabandoned by the King but was continued by Shamans who were more often than not\nwomen. The King or Shaman would carve the questions onto the bone, apply heat\nwith a metal rod and then read the patterns of the cracking produced by the\nheat. Because these markings in the early 20th<\/sup> century, proved to be\nhistorical characterized by writing, we can say that Choi\u2019s engagement with them\nsegues from the pre-historic into the historical eras. Consequently, Choi\ntraces human existence through its traces or signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the Egyptian Palette of Narmer (c.3100 BC) or the Akkadian\ntablet of Naram-sin (c. 2254-2218 BC) Choi\u2019s tablets are executed in relief\nsculpture but the latter is not about famous battle victories like the earlier.\nChoi\u2019s figures are not engaged in battle or proudly depicting a larger than\nlife leader, they are evenly spaced and sized. The ancient tablets were sized\nhieratically whereas the King is the largest figure and everyone else was sized\naccording to their importance in that society. Choi\u2019s evenly sized figures are\nconcordant with the idea of democracy wherein individual figures are evenly\nconfigured. Marxist critic Linda Nochlin discusses George Seurat\u2019s divisionism\nin terms of political allegories of parity and the \u2018anti-Utopian\u2019 modern\ncondition.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The floor installation piece Human Evolution III<\/em>,\n2019 because of its orientation holds similarities to Carl Andre\u201ds minimalist\nsculptures. Both Choi and Andre used grid formatted structures to give order to\ntheir language. They also used repetition as a way of emphasizing their linear\nforms and placed their sculptures on the floor. But whereas Andre emphasized\nthe space above his works that could even be read as column, Choi focuses on\nthe solidity attained from carving elements in relief that depict the exchange\nrelationship between solid and void. This idea relates to the Korean concept of\nyin yang found in Taoism one of the religious philosophies combined with\nBuddhism and Confucianism prevalent in Korea of today. To Taoism and\nconsequently to Choi who is Korean, they represent the yin and yang sign that\nis both solid and void simultaneously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human Evolution III<\/em>, 2019\nappears like a checkered black and white pattern comprised of tiles inscribed\nby similar figures as in his wall works. In keeping with the legend of the\ngrain of wheat and Zarathustra\u2019s game with the King, chess is a game of power. Thus,\nthis work can also be compared to chess and brings us full circle to the start\nof this essay regarding cosmic archetypes as the required element necessary to\nbattle our own egos. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Thalia Vrachopoulos, Ph.D. Choi\u2019s multifaceted installations employ the abstracted human form in movement as sign language thus demonstrating a relationship to collective memory and Jungian archetypes, and in their essentialized forms, to cave painting also. Human Evolution I, 2019 which a triptych of neutral background with navy and puce colored signs and a central … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Janghan Choi at the Korean Cultural Center in Tenafly, New Jersey”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-general","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}