ART-PRESENTATION: Jung Hee Choi-Ahata Anahata,Manifest Unmanifest X

Utilizing traditional and experimental techniques, Jung Hee Choi has worked in a variety of media (video, drawing, incense, performance and sound) presenting series of environmental compositions involving the concept of Manifest, Unmanifest. As the artist says “Ancient and universal themes inspired me to create new forms of artistic expression in visual art and music. In a process of assessing and defining the nature of reality, my inquiry focuses on how we perceive being and consciousness, and ultimately, how ideas representing the interaction of opposites intertwine with one another”.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: MELA Foundation Archive

The annual exhibition of Jung Hee Choi’s “Ahata Anahata, Manifest Unmanifest X” in the MELA Foundation Dream House, features large-scale multimedia installations including “Environmental Composition 2016 #1”, a live realization version of “Color (CNN)”, and the  multichannel video installation “RICE”. It also includes two sound environments, “Tonecycle Base 30 Hz, 2:3:7 Sine Wave Version” and “Tonecycle Base 30 Hz, 2:3:7 Vocal Version”. The artist has presented series of environmental compositions with video, evolving light-point patterns, drawings, incense, performance and sound involving the concept of “Manifest, Unmanifest”. Choi’s synthesis of expression collectively creates an intersubjective space as a unified continuum emphasizing the totality of sense perceptions as a single unit to create a state of immersion.. As part of the exhibition, three live performances of “Tonecycle for Blues Base 30 Hz, 2:3:7 Ensemble Version with 4:3 and 7:6” will be performed by The Sundara All-Star Band. The three legendary vocalists: La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Jung Hee Choi and the musicians:  Jon Catler and Brad Catler, improvise harmonically related frequency ratios over Choi’s new work, “Tonecycle for Blues: accompanied by tabla master, Naren Budhkar. While traversing the common ground of improvisational phrases rooted in Indian raga, American blues techniques, Korean traditional folk ballads and musical Minimalism, this work creates a highly original sound that is based on just intervals.

Info: Curators: La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, MELA Foundation Dream House, 275 Church Street, 3rd Floor, New York, Duration 18/8-8/10/16, Days @ Hours: Wed-Sat 14:00-00:00, Live Performances: 25/9, 1/10 & 7/10, Hours 21:00, www.melafoundation.org