Installation view of 《Blank–Hide and Seek》 © Gallery Chosun

《Blank–Hide and Seek》 begins with a black structure. The black structure remains as a bare framework, stripped of all architectural elements such as doors, windows, surfaces, and decorations, leaving its meaning and purpose indeterminate. This structure is referred to as “Blank.” Surrounding the Blank structure are fragments created from collected narratives. Each fragment possesses its own distinct form, content, and imagery, and the act of producing and installing these fragments is termed “Hide.”

The fragments placed throughout the space provide clues that allow viewers to infer how they function in relation to the Blank structure, as well as its final form, spatial arrangement, scale, background, and purpose. The act of interpreting these fragments is called “Seek,” prompting viewers to reconstruct the Blank existing between reality and virtual space through personal experience and imagination. There is no correct answer to Blank; it is continuously reconfigured through repeated acts of Hide and Seek, based on collected fragments and individual imagination. Through the given clues and empty spaces, the work aims to evoke an effect of constant transformation into diverse spatial possibilities.

Minkyoo Choi relocated to the Middle East during childhood, and through this experience of adapting to a new environment, he constructs his own architectural forms that transcend time, space, and culture, based on unfamiliar visual impressions of places and regions he encountered, as well as personal emotions.

By employing architectural elements, he presents a new sculptural perspective through the discovery of unique objects that explore familiarity and unfamiliarity, combination and disassembly. The warmth of traditional Korean dancheong and roof tiles, seeping into the cold structural framework created by numerous bolts, stainless steel, and mirrors, reflects an interaction and infiltration between environment and human, suggesting new directions. His interest in architecture lies not in constructing buildings but in creating devices that generate visual illusions—what might be described as a form of magical reality.


Minkyoo Choi, Blank Hide and seek-assemble 90 degrees, 2018, Print on acrylic, steel, bolt, nut, 30x30x20cm © Minkyoo Choi

Artist Statement

“Immersing oneself in a newly given environment and life can occur directly or indirectly, and it brings about psychological adaptation and changes in visual thinking.”

Architecture is the result of the thoughts and ideologies of each era. It is also a visual medium capable of captivating others and maintains a close relationship with humans and society. My work originates from the sense of unfamiliarity felt in a new environment, and as the environment changes, the emotions of instability and perceptual differences eventually transform into a process where everything becomes absorbed into me. These unstable emotions are transformed into perfectly structured constructions, and the absorbed emotions become reconfigured images, resulting in a newly constructed “spatial structure.”

Each component designed in a two-dimensional plane is assembled into a three-dimensional spatial configuration through processes of design and construction. This process represents how I, as a subject, absorb and internalize environment and culture.

The act of disassembling and miniaturizing architecture recalls children’s toy models. Children understand the incomprehensible scale of the world through miniaturized forms, which function as a pseudo-reality—different from but still resembling reality. During his childhood in the Middle East, Minkyoo Choi recalls that he was only able to adapt to the new environment by disassembling and recombining architectural models from the Middle East and Korea.

In this way, his attempt to understand the world through points of incomprehension and unfamiliarity via architecture has evolved into a practice of dismantling three-dimensional architecture, redesigning it in two-dimensional planes, and constructing “spatial structures.” He hopes that such seemingly futile attempts may still provide comfort to someone, like an adult-child.

References