Kiasma, the Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki, hosts an exhibition by contemporary Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa. Happy Together runs until September 18 2016 and is curated in cooperation with the Helsinki Festival. Happy Happy by the Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa takes the viewer into a colourful plastic jungle. A closer look reveals that the resplendent paradise consists in fact of chains of domestic appliances stretching from the ceiling to the floor. Choi builds his large installations by combining local and Korean, new and old, unique and mass-produced elements, blending Korean pictorial tradition with global consumer culture. From ordinary consumer goods, such as colourful plastic vessels and cheap toys, Choi builds experiential and immersive spaces. https://youtu.be/pcegO1uAlPY At the same time, the works also call our attention to the materialism in which we live and the overabundance of goods, the ubiquity of plastic.

“…it is not surprising that Choi Jeong Hwa is seen in Korea as the pioneer of a completely new way of looking at art, as well as how it relates to life at large. Sometimes, in doing this, he has irritated people and has even been accused of ‘not being original’ because, like Marcel Duchamp or Andy Warhol before him, he has transformed into art images or objects which have had another life in the everyday. In this, and many other respects, he has had a decisive impact on Korean culture,” writes David Elliott in his article published in the exhibition catalogue.

Choi finds inspiration in the chaos and beauty of the city and its people, he wants to bring something new and collectively shareable into the public space. The exhibition also includes a participatory work of art. Choi Jeong Hwa (b. 1961) is one of the most famous contemporary artists in South Korea. He works on a broad front with visual arts as both an artist and a designer. In cooperation with the Helsinki Festival. Read more about Choi Jeong Hwa IMAGE: Happy happy © CHOI JEONG HWA