| Jung Hee Choi has
worked in a variety of contemporary media: in painting, drawing, video,
photography, sculpture, and multi-media installations, including
several solo and group shows in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Utilizing
both traditional and highly
experimental techniques, Choi’s vision has led to the development of a
unique artistic language. Ancient and universal themes
inform her work in a process of assessing and defining the nature of
reality. Her inquiry focuses on how we perceive being and
consciousness, and ultimately, how ideas representing the interaction
of opposites intertwine with one another.
This pursuit began to direct Choi toward television as a medium of
expression. She began exploring television as a process of
communication and, more specifically, how ultra-ultra high frequency
becomes visible phenomena evolving from the
mixture of mind and camera, to attain an instantaneous reaction from a
broad spectrum of viewers. Choi graduated summa cum laude from New York University. She is a founding producer and director for Mantra TV, a cable and webcast vehicle for advanced arts in New York City and Korea. Her programs feature original works of art, music, dance, experimental film, and discuss the creative processes of art, abstract video, and performance. 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 she became a founding member of The Just Alap Raga Ensemble and has performed as vocalist in every concert. Since 2007 Choi has been a teaching assistant at the Kirana Center and became an instructor in 2008. Choi has collaborated with Young and Zazeela to produce long-term video documentation of their lives and work, including the Dream House and affiliated events. She is the artistic consultant and director of camera and lighting for a forthcoming documentary on Young and Zazeela. In May--June 2003, Choi presented RICE, a video sound performance and installation in a setting of Marian Zazeela’s Imagic Light environment in the MELA Dream House, which was chosen as one of The 10 Best of 2003 in the December Artforum: “This video-sound work was presented in May at Dream House, the permanent installation of La Monte Young’s eternal music and Marian Zazeela’s magenta lights, and one of Dia founder Heiner Friedrich’s great legacies. A hypnotic projection of rotating mandalic forms radiated out from Zazeela’s magenta color field like silent fireworks, while the sound of Choi tracing a circle around the top of an overturned cooking pot with a rice paddle created a single repeating tone that resonated deep in the solar plexus.” In October--November 2005, RICE was performed and presented in the MELA Dream House as a part of the La Monte Young 70th birthday celebration. Choi received The Experimental Television Center’s Finishing Funds 2006 award, supported by the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts to prepare RICE for DVD release. Choi was one of the organizers of the 2004 New York Korean Film Festival and curator of Syn-Aesthetics, the Media Mavericks 1st Experimental Film Festival 2006. She was also co-curator of KUEIP 2007 and 2008 (KU Exhibition of International Professors, Seoul, Korea). For the La Monte Young Marian Zazeela and The Just Alap Raga Ensemble long-term video installation of "05 II 05 PM NYC" Raga Sundara, ektal vilampit khayal set in Raga Yaman Kalyan at the Kunst im Regenbogenstadl Dream House, Polling, Bavaria, Germany, Choi was both video director and video mastering producer, as well as a vocalist in the Ensemble. Her three-week solo drawings, video, sound installation, Ahata Anahata,The manifest The unmanifest, As a wheel that is one-rimmed and threefold with one-hundred and one spokes and where the illusion of the one springs from the other two, was presented in April, 2007 at New York’s Tompkins Square Gallery. In December 2007, Choi presented two films in FRESH 2007, a festival of international video art and short films, CODE, Bangkok, Thailand, and in May 2008, she presented Room with a view, a video sound installation at Chuncheon International Mime Festival, Chuncheon, Korea. |