A Secret Hidden in the Play - Alain P. Donald Art critic

The value system Choi Woolga pursues in his works seems to be rediscovery of a primitive moralism. It belonged to a genre of unconsciousness anybody could pursue, but in our modern times, it is expressed rather as logical thought, while being theorized in a more complicated way, and as a result, it seems to be more difficult to understand than any other genre.

However, I believe that the emotional consciousness of seeing and feeling is not much different from the primitive one.

The power of his consciousness of eulogizing the freedom may lie in a kind of autistic nostalgia naturally evoked when he tries to reflect on his works earnestly his intention or a mental by-product after a career of some length during which he raised questions incessantly through plays.

To Choi Woolga, the consciousness of the past will not follow some realistic value criteria but recollect the past memories fantastically and thereby, create his own space to settle there comfortably; any artist may well have such a consciousness when he or she is distanced far from present or future.

Anyway, we may feel an infant innocence or a mental freedom dreamt by us for the images of his consciousness recalled, which I cannot deny makes our instinct happy regardless of our educational background in the society.

To Choi Woolga, painting belongs to the genre called play, but some realistic expressions are hidden inside his paintings.

It is not that only the painting like a photo is realistic.

It is nothing but a technical element.

Jean Dubuffet's paintings express some internal facts.

Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon and Jean-Mitchel Basquiat may have reinterpreted the realistic expressions in some ways.

As a more plausible example, when children are painting their moms or younger brothers, they try to paint them realistically. And even if they feel that their paintings mirror their moms or brothers, they would think what is visible in their paintings are not all about their moms or brothers.

To children, painting is nothing but a kind of unconscious play, and through such activities, they would be happy and pleased. They do not mind others' views, drawing their paintings according to what they feel. Thus, the viewers would feel free for their paintings like a clean brook.

According to Choi Woolga, "human beings are happy with the incessant plays, work for the plays, and earn money for a happy play." After all, "human beings' ultimate goal lies in pleasant plays and their enjoyment." The artist who argues that everything in the world consists of play culture expresses his consciousness of pleasant play as paintings, refusing the serious, philosophical and conservative academics.... So, he does not think any work dictated by knowledge conform to his tendency of art.

Then, what is the world of painting desired by Choi Woolga?

First of all, summing up his mentions about his motive of art, his motive derives from the behaviors or the situation in time immemorial when no letters existed and when only some unconscious thoughts and emotions purified only as feeling were enlivened before material civilization and political consciousness began to dominate the society. The primitive men needed a play but did not want their play being watched. They just played for pleasure, not for clothing, means or housing. They were engaged too naturally in their plays for their physical reverberation or mental pleasure. To our human beings, particularly our modern men shackled by the framework of civilization, the primitive art images may well be sources of mental pleasure or surprise, as if they were clean and clear wells found deep in the mountains. It is conceived, therefore, that Choi Woolga himself has come to draw the paintings conforming to his motive partly because he was born to do so and partly because his life course has befitted his inborn nature accidentally.

When he was young, he may have not be satisfied with everything around him. He used to cry frequently, drawing the paintings on the small void ground beside his house. Such paintings have formed a secret passage leading to his present art. In this long and tough passage, the weightless plays might still be processed.

At any rate, the play-like consciousness of life he pursues is never denied by him, and instead, accepted thoroughly as his reality. I believe that such a consciousness is a motive great as lonely struggling human spirit under any standards.

However, he still seems to face the challenge how to express the human consciousness of pleasant play into paintings.

Nevertheless, any artist is obliged to face the challenge beautiful and pure.

Amazon, the only primitive part on this planet may call him.