1 May 2008 — 31 May 2008

 Kiseog Choi's page
Kiseog Choi
UNTITLED

Choi Ki-Seog has explored space, mass, and the physical properties of materials through the technique of welding steel. Born in 1962, Choi is now a professor at the Department of Environmental Sculpture at Kyunggi University. In his 12th solo show, Choi arranges 104 cubes measuring 17x17x17 centimeters on the floor. Choi’s work, produced by dissecting heated steel into hundreds of pieces, spreading them out by hammering and finally welding them, appears like a huge ball, a pillar, or a structure to sit on or straddle. In the exhibition, referred to as an ‘experiment with space’ by the artist himself, Choi excludes all superfluous factors and places emphasis on materials and space, eloquently representing the pure feeling of each piece. This show, featuring only one work, generates a profound visual beauty and density, extending and reinforcing our fixed notions of sculpture and allowing us to simultaneously experience a true sense of space.

“Choi creates the most basic forms such as cubes or cylindrical lines and planes by welding them together one by one to produce round, long steel cylinders, as if drawing a picture with lines. The marks created by welding the steel pieces become like painterly lines. His work becomes the traces of time joining crevices and holding each unit together rather loosely. These become like the evidence of his labor, a picture with an empty inside, and a mass that is a representation of something, but still mostly abstract. A myriad of touches and marks are spread out on a flat surface as if trying to appeal to our gaze and the colors of the heated parts have changed. Wrinkles on the steel and its surface or skin fluidly stream and show diverse looks according to the visual angle and lighting.”
- Park Young-taik, Choi Ki-Seog’s Welding Sculpture - Time Inscribed in the Skin of Steel 
Installation view