Jung Hee Choi
Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifest VI
23 August–15 September 2012
MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY
Hours: Thu–Sat, 6pm–midnight
T 212 925 8270
Live Performances: Tonecycle Base 30 Hz, 2:3:7
Saturdays 8 & 15 September, 9pm
La Monte Young, voice
Marian Zazeela, voice
Jung Hee Choi, voice
Sine wave frequencies
“I found Jung Hee Choi’s installation Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifest moving and engrossing… the effect of [Choi’s] work is mesmerizing. I believe that this use of drawing with the moving light projections of her video works represents a new and original direction in art today.”
–Jon Hendricks, Silverman Fluxus Collection
MELA Foundation presents Jung Hee Choi’s Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifest VI, illuminating various aspects of recent works and their relationships across different media.
Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifest VI features four large-scale multimedia installations, and a new sound environment, Tonecycle Base 30 Hz, 2:3:7 Vocal Version with La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Jung Hee Choi improvising over the implied tonic that is imperceptibly changing. The relationship of the improvisations to the drone continuously elaborates the musical meaning of the pitch. This exhibition premieres the installation works Composition 2012 #2 and Composition 2012 #3 created with Light Point Drawings on black wrap with video. The drawings are viewed as indiscernibly moving light from video projection glowing through the pinholes creating abstract and analogous representation of “Manifest Unmanifest.”
Choi writes: “This series of environmental compositions involves the concept of ‘Manifest, Unmanifest’ created with various media including video, drawing, incense, performance, and sound. This synthesis of expression collectively creates an intersubjective space as a unified continuum. In rejecting our current mode of perception that stresses ‘sight’ as the primary model of organizing the sensorium, this series of works emphasizes the totality of sense perceptions as a single unit to create a state of immersion. It is especially meaningful for me to show in the Dream House space because my work has evolved from the visionary inspiration of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. Exhibition audiences may experience Young and Zazeela’s concept of eternity taking a form of ephemeral presence that is infinitely variable while flowing from the principles they have delineated.”
About Jung Hee Choi
Utilizing traditional and experimental techniques, Jung Hee Choi has worked in a variety of media presenting series of environmental compositions involving the concept of “Manifest, Unmanifest” created with video, drawing, incense, performance, and sound. Choi’s work has been presented in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including MELA Foundation and Guggenheim Museum Dream Houses, NYC; l’ERBA de Besançon, France; Berliner Festspiele, Germany; FRESH Festival, Bangkok; 8th Korea Experimental Arts Festival, Korea. Commissioned by MELA Foundation, her video sound performance and installation, RICE, set in Zazeela’s Imagic Light environment was chosen as one of The 10 Best of 2003 in the December Artforum.
In 1999, Choi became a disciple of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in the study of music and art, with the classical Kirana tradition gandha bandh red-thread ceremony in 2003. In 2002, with Young and Zazeela she became a founding member of The Just Alap Raga Ensemble and has performed as vocalist in every concert, including the MELA Dream House, 2009 Yoko Ono Courage Award Ceremony, Merce Cunningham Memorial, and MaerzMusik Festival.
Choi graduated summa cum laude from NYU. She received The Experimental Television Center’s Finishing Funds 2006 award. Choi’s in-depth interview is featured in the online Asian Contemporary Art Week presentations organized by Asia Society, NY. Choi appeared as guest artist and lecturer at the School of Visual Art, NYC and École supérieure d’art de Mulhouse, France.
