Jung Hee Choi
Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifest IV
25 August–17 September 2011
MELA Foundation Dream House
275 Church Street, 3rd Floor, New York
Thursday–Saturday, 6 pm to Midnight
T 212 925 8270
Live Performances:
Tonecycle Base 65 Hz, 2:3:7
Saturdays, September 3 and 10, 2011, 9 pm
La Monte Young, voice
Marian Zazeela, voice
Jung Hee Choi, voice
sine wave frequencies
“I found Jung Hee Choi’s installation Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifestmoving 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 IV, illuminating various aspects of recent works and their relationships across different media.
August 25–September 17, 2011, Thursday through Saturday, 6 pm to midnight, MELA Dream House.
Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifest IV features three large-scale multimedia installations, a series of drawings, videos and a new sound environment, Tonecycle Base 65 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 also premieres the installation work Composition 2011 #1 created with needlepoint 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 has written, “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 my works in the Dream House space because my work has evolved from the visionary inspiration of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. With this 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 both traditional and experimental techniques, Jung Hee Choi has worked in a variety of media. She has presented 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 at MELA Foundation and Guggenheim Museum Dream Houses, NYC; FRESH Festival, Bangkok; 8th Korea Experimental Arts Festival, Korea. Commissioned by MELA Foundation, her video sound performance and installation, RICE, in a setting of Marian 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 those at the MELA Dream House, the 2009 Yoko Ono Courage Award Ceremony, and the Merce Cunningham Memorial.
Choi graduated summa cum laude from NYU. She received The Experimental Television Center’s Finishing Funds 2006 award. Choi’s in-depth interview on her work is featured as part of the online Asian Contemporary Art Week presentations organized by Asia Society, NY.
