Mi-Young Choi
Artist Statement.
The works shown are part of an ongoing project consisting of an expanding series of allegorical paintings, called “Witness: The Sky is Called", in which the sky is shown as pictorial space, literally and metaphorically. I’m enthralled by colour, and as such the sky holds a particular fascination for me. It is always in motion, with form and colour dissolving to be replaced by other possibilities in time, as if when potential images slip in an out of the imagination when looking at an abstract scene. In its representation here, the sky sustains various moods and bears witness to events suggested in the literal, abstract and gestural. The series references shared and foreign histories, with the aim of sustaining ambiguity and ‘other possibilities', with sky itself having the possibility to appear infinite and unknown as much as it does comforting and familiar. Although aspects of my own identity, cultural heritage and stories are naturally incorporated, the intention is to offer a body of work to viewers that acts as a stage to explore their own experience and understandings. Co-existing relations and tension between:- balance and contrast, reality and imagination, individuality and conformance, and personal and common cultural experiences - all play a part in the presented metaphors that viewers are invited to explore.
The pieces are loosely organised by title into different allegorical themes. For example, the "Exodus" pieces suggest shared movement with a common purpose, pointing to notions of abandonment, escape and migration - within scenes that suggest optimism as much as they do a sense of a foreboding. The "Mercury" canvases represent rockets pushing our virtual and actual presence to the extreme limits of the space we occupy, symbolising humankind's progress as much as they do a tendency for self-destruction. 'Case for the Prosecution' and 'Case for the Defence' works suggest opposite interpretations for a judgement on our societies reactions to the human condition.
Mi-Young Choi's own web site
