Hyundai Motor Series 2022 Choe U-ram Seoul 9 September – 26 February
At the centre of Choe U-ram’s iteration of the ’s annual Hyundai-sponsored contemporary art showcase is an elaborately constructed maritime fable, built around an undulating (literally), metal-ribbed rowboat. At first sight, the jointed mechanism that makes up Little Ark’s (2022) centrepiece looks more like a robot insect, perhaps a mechanised centipede, lying legs raised upwards on its back. As its ribs begin to move, its legs become apparent as carboardedged oars, and the nautical theme becomes clear. This is reinforced by a set of surrounding props: Anchor (2022), a used-looking metal anchor mounted on one wall, Two Captains (2022) (blank, pointing human figures made out of recycled cardboard boxes) sitting one to the front and one to the rear of the Lighthouse, which is itself placed in the centre of the ark, and Angel (2022), a goldleafed sculpture-cum-masthead of the heavenly creature, dangling drowsily from ceiling wires and looking more like Icarus than Gabriel. A video of open doorways and a Kusama-like mirrored sculpture synthesising infinite space sit at either end of the whole thing, suggesting some sort of endless voyage. Cumulatively, it leaves you wondering if the work contains some message about escape, a biblical lecture, a hint at a Waterworld (1995)style environmental catastrophe to come or a retro throwback to the mecha-creatures of 1980s Japanese animé Zoids. The wall text that opens the show promises ‘a performance that reconstructs the reality we are in now’. And if you’re beginning to think, on the basis of this, that reality is confusing, then Choe’s Little Ark might well be an accurate reflection of that.
Choe’s work in general operates at some strange intersection of the natural, the manmade and the animate. Some of his signature kinetic sculptures, alongside related drawings, paintings and lightworks, make up the rest of this expansive exhibition. One (2020) and Red (2021) are giant black and red motorised chrysanthemums, their petals made of Tyvek (a material used in much of the ffffff that was ubiquitous during the heyday of the pandemic), opening and closing to articulate the cycles of life. These are matched, at the end of the show, by -1 (2014) and -2 (2016), two human-sized balls made up of used and repurposed Hyundai automobile head- and breaklights respectively, which together continue the theme of recycling (while nodding to the exhibition sponsors). They’re functional, even beyond their original intended use. And yet, despite this ongoing sense of extension, while this exhibition definitely moves you’re never quite sure if it’s going anywhere.