Final Project - Artist #1

http://www.visualnews.com/2012/07/21/magazine-sculptures/
Yunwoo Choi



The artist of these works Yunwoo Choi uses rolled-up pages of magazine and glue to create works that are inspired by revealing dimensions that cannot be seen.


"Lightweight sculptures, fragile in their construction and huge in their scale, fill rooms with colour as they traverse the 3rd dimension. "
" His pieces take the form of cyclonic black holes, corkscrewing ribbons and even flat pointillist-like portraits using the printed shades of his recycled paper medium. With each he ponders important questions about our perceptions of reality:

“Are people,” he asks, “really living in the same plane or dimension even though they feel differently about the same situation?”

Not one to simply present the question, he reads books like Brian Greene’s “The Elegant Universe” and “The Fabric of the Cosmos” which explores the idea that there are 14 dimensions which have theoretically been proven. With so many dimensions at play, Choi explores the idea of invisible and intangible matter physically existing in the overlapping hidden spaces of dimensions we cannot perceive.

“I am also interested in invisible and intangible matter itself. Books by the philosopher Ken Wilber, along with Taoist and Buddhist texts have inspired my work. For me, the answer is to express my unseeable and untouchable deep internal interests and spirit.”

Acknowledging the dualistic nature of his “endless” conceptualizing in the realms of the spiritual and the secular, he states: “my mind which was originally seamless oneness is divided into numerous fragments.” It sounds a lot like the mind that could create such thoughtful and interestingly inspired works."


I have planned to use magazine as my material for the final project, and while the shapes that I wish to create will be quite structured and fall under the 'vessel' category, I find his ability to manipulate this relatively simple medium to such an extent really inspiring.
Additionally having made magazine structures and experimenting with vessels, the cutting, pasting and constructing elements are HUGELY time consuming. The size of his work and magnitude of the handmade, man hours that would have been required is both intimidating and appealing to me.

I think the first image is a really beautiful shape, and the construction is admirable as it is able to hold its shape whilst in the air.



Similarly the second image shows the strength of the artists construction as the body is only attached to the walls with a few points of fishing line. The structure still manages to hold shape, not tear or fall apart.





The scale of the works is massively impressive and the close-up shots really enhance the time-consuming and labour intensive process which clearly appeals to me as my work always tends to revolve around the notion of 'hand-made'.





Really nice form to this work. Clearly such a solid and stable piece which contradicts the flimsy and breakable nature of magazine paper.