CHOI INSU Korean, b. 1946

Choi Insu (b. 1946) is a Korean sculptor who visualises the five senses with a commitment to minimalism. Instead of considering the work as the result of a “making process,” his intention is to reveal the pure property that a material contains. Choi graduated from Seoul National University with a B.F.A and M.F.A degree, where he was a professor at the College of Fine Arts. He studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe, Germany. He was awarded for the Kim Sejong Sculpture Grand Prize in Seoul in 2001.

“For many days, I kept gazing at about thirty undergrown dead zelkova trees, each about a span of the hand in diameter. How did these trees come to me? I beg the god of wood, the god of sculpture, to please understand the sculptor’s lack of thought.

The tree would have many things of the world recorded in it. Throughout its decades of growth. I say Wood is Place. It contains the energy of where it had grown, and sometimes new placeness is added as the tree is transplanted. Though the trees that were cut and brought to my studio have lost their placeness, they will gain a different placeness through the sculptor, and naturally gain certain significance.

Trying to dominate the wood for the sake of form will result in stress rather than the pleasure of work. Using a chain saw for efficiency will leave aggression and violence in the work.  I changed my way of thinking from sculpting form to participating in material. I came to anticipate new change. The sound of the chisel and hammer create links among matter, the world and me, and bring confidence in sense.” (Quote from Poetics of Senses)

As Choi articulates the duration of time and nature via sculpture and drawing, his drawing series, Seed Grows Slow and Fast, effortlessly marked in watercolour and paper, is an outcome of the compilation of multiple hours, thus representing the time of life. This series was completed after twenty years of experimental process, considering the humidity of weather as the main component of the work. Choi’s another drawing series, Appear and Disappear (2023), is a manifestation of the essence of nature with a minimum effort. In this series, his “hand” functions as a tool to share nature itself instead of an artistic expression.