Joong-Won Choi [a'pa:rtment]_curated by Sun Young KIM
Presented at this exhibition are ‘Apartment Series’ by photographer Choi Joong-Won Choi. Having Choi already earned recognition for his talent as a photographer through his previous workseries, ‘Skimmed Landscape Series,’. His most recent workChoi’s recent, ‘Apartment Series’, once again shows presents his his unique sense of beauty as well , and his thoughts about photography by capturing and the objects contained in his photos quite calmly and without exaggeration.
The photographer has already taken an interest in the scenes found in our the neighborhoods, which we pass through in our daily business;, and ishe has now turned his attention to now telling the stories about of the apartments that line our city streets (and real apartments, the most common form of housing today). In Korea, everything from tThe structure, size, and location of apartments have become established measures of wealth in today’s societyin Korea.
The construction of apartments in Korea was initiated began under the auspices of a nationwide cause: the post-war restoration project and improvement of the residential environment. Choi started the ‘Apartment Series’ out of curiosity about for what had becoame of the Korea’s earliest apartments.
Choi He did a great deal of research for this series, and became particularly interested . Among early models, Choi is particularly interested in the independent, small-sized early apartment models rather than big apartment complexes. Apartments such as these Such apartments are now widely considered dated and inadequate as they struggle for survival,. They are in a struggle for survival, but Choi considers them much more than shabby, awkward-looking, and worn-out buildings. For him, Ththey are real things which bear the that have traces of history engraved on their bodies, seen even today with the naked eye, with clear eyes, even if as they are being sent to the scrap heap of history. They once stood in stately glory in the center of town, but today, they barely sustain their existence.
Choi's photography of such apartments is a record of the history of Korean residential housing from modern to contemporary times, of stories shared by the people who lived there, and of information that is not revealed visible on the surface.
