Choe U-Ram’s Artistic Qualities
1. Mobility of objects.
For Choe U-Ram the presentation of “mobility” is a basic form and also symbolizes a life force. That is, Choe’s works are mechanical “life forms” with feelings. Choe thinks that the definition of life is ambiguous; once the machine starts to move, it is a life born, and all the motions cycle within the machine itself just like an autonomous power internal to an organism. "Form" and "mobility" are essential visual elements in Choe's art work. The “form” expresses metaphysical ideas through “mobility”, in other words, Choe’s art gives shape to the shapeless imagined, and elevates the physical to the philosophical level of the intangible. Borrowing the power of science and technology, Choe uses the 'form' of moving art and extends this beyond the concept of motion, mimicking living organisms, creating the ever-changing 'Anima Machine'. He transforms lifeless materials into evolving organisms, their elegant movements and complex structure bring to mind alien creatures, and their slow movements inspires beyond their physical form.
【stil laif】，A Life Form with Ancestry
Choe U-Ram has mesmerized the art world with his sculptures for over 20 years. While Choe is often compared with other kinetic artists, he does not consider himself a kinetic artist because his art has transcended beyond simple mobility. Choe strongly believes that machine and technology have life, and thus his works are not merely moving sculptures but living subjects, or another kind of living entity. The exhibition named【stil laif】phonetically can be read as "Steel Life", "Steal Life", or even "Still Life", creating ambiguity and associations to the viewer. While seeing the works moving rhythmically and radiating faintly, the viewer further experiences a sense of contradiction, surprise and contrast. The art works are not only called “mechanical creatures” or “Anima Machine”, they also move slowly as if they are breathing; they are future organisms existing in a space from antiquity to the present, experiencing an eternal cultivation. Choe finds them and creates them, and furthermore he gives a scientific report of their identification to further extend his creative belief. This report comes from United Research of Anima Machine, a fictional institute. “I pretend to have discovered a new species of organism, but I did not want to just stop there. So I wrote a more detailed story about this mechanical creature.... When the work is completed, the work begins life anew. My work can be read in many different ways. I might include some meaning and intention, but how the audience interprets them is completely up to them.”
Choe’s biggest inspiration is nature, but he is also very interested in human nature. “When I made this piece, I wanted to tell a story about life. I was especially interested in humanity. When I think about what differentiates human from other species, other species don't keep killing hundreds and thousands of their own kind. I’ve been asking myself why, in the history of mankind, humans are always killing, fighting, exploiting, and trying to subjugate others?” Thus, Choe created "IMAGO", a creature of paradox with one heart but two minds; its two heads are locked in an endless cycles of opposition, symbolizing some sort of inner conflict within the human race. "This is a question all human beings would have when gazing into the world. So I began to look into political and social problems. I believe it is art that makes people more human. To express questions and thoughts through artwork is my calling as an artist. I believe art is something that makes people more human.”
The story always comes from how a life unfolds itself; with stories, the course of time is written as history. What Choe creates are not individual subjects, but he aspires to tell a grand myth of machines. Looking over most of Choe’s works, we find that there are few works with images of human beings. Choe is more inclined to create something of idiosyncratic outlook to make the audience think that it may be some organism yet can’t quite say its exact name. “What I find interesting is, even a mythological metaphor of the ancient time still fits the contemporary society.” The myth turns around, and Choe’s mechanical sculptures are no longer just foretelling the future, but they can be organisms connecting the real world and the supernatural world. Choe even composes an ancestry for each of the organisms, from an ancient time to the future.
3. United Research of Anima Machine, U.R.A.M
In 1921 Alexander M. Rodchenko (1891-1956) announced his abandonment of traditional brushes and took up the use of machinery as his medium for creation, emphasizing that art was better expressed through "machinery". The 20th Century mechanical aesthetics master Fernand Léger (1881-1955), whose subjects included the beauty of the modern world and a civilization of material machinery, portraying organic figures and objects as mechanized and geometric, yet grasping a new world of mechanical aesthetics, giving his images a brightness of life and the beauty of existence.
Choe takes the letters of his name, 'URAM', and turns it into an acronym for "United Research of Anima Machine". In Latin, “Anima” means soul, life and motion; thus, each art work at U.R.A.M, traces of their breathing is illuminated by a soft glowing light.
“I have always thought of them as living beings; that’s how I give them Latin names, as if they really actually exist.” To Choe, the shape of his work confirms the importance of naming it. It is not simply the play of words; it is to respond to his report of pseudoscientific observation at United Research of Anima Machine, making it clear that “mechanical creatures are newly discovered creatures from prehistoric time or outer space”. Choe’s work also questions the truth of memory and time-space recognition, seeking the extension of meanings of reality through peculiar combinations of time-space relationships.
By 2010, the stories of Choe’s works began to involve myth. With symbolic references, the stories have more social implications, and the names of the works are extended from Latin to Sanskrit, giving the impression that the art works have existed for a long time. These complicated and incomprehensible names give the audience the liberty to interpret what those objects mean for them. In 2011, when Choe displayed “Custos Cavum”, his new creation for Asia Society Museum at New York, the local media Huffpost Arts & Culture gave the title “Mythical ‘Anima-Machine’ Really Breathes!” to celebrate his accomplishments.
4. Superb Teamwork of Technology
"Nothing Impossible！" Choe U-Ram has come a long way from a young and struggling artist. We see the significant progress Choe has achieved in terms of technique, technology, and creative concept. Each of his works looks large and grand; he makes creatures of the virtual world alive in the real world, as if they had indeed existed since the origin of life. Choe shows unparalleled talents, a unique sense of art, and the persistence in pursuing perfection throughout the entire creative process.
Choe employs robotic engineering, computer programming and electronics, along with inspirations from science fiction as well as his wild vision of a fantastic world of creatures, to create his works. He would install the latest technologies in his studio, with his superb team of electronic engineer, sculptors and designer. They have worked together for over 10 years and know each other very well like a family. There is no inspiration on earth that cannot be achieved, from the art of fantasy, Choe assembles together thousands of pieces, tens of thousands of parts, creating delicate and exquisite metal objects and structures, from every small screw and thousands of wires, perfecting Choe U-Ram's mythological art.
5. The Future Mimicry of Reality.
Lustful hunt or madness, mythological creature or urban parasite, the movements of Choe U-Ram's mechanical sculptures materialize gothic beauty and the compression of passing time. Not only are they beautiful objects within themselves, Choe U-Ram's mechanical entities with their diverse mimicry, are in fact related to us, forcing us to focus on current social issues such as humanity, hope and war. This is an anxiety of the contemporary world. However, facing chaos, humankind’s primal fear, Choe’s complex insights, astonishing artistic beauty, and new ideas coexist in intimate harmony and outline a picture of a future world, inviting all creatures. "If you ask what art is, what I am doing now is actually trying to find the answer. If I find that answer before I die, it will be my greatest achievement." said Choe.
