MELA presents Jung Hee Choi

RICE, a video sound performance and installation

MELA Dream House

275 Church Street, 3rd floor, NYC 10013

( between Franklin & White Streets in Tribeca )

212 925-8270; www.melafoundation.org

PERFORMANCE Sunday, May 4, 2003, 9:00 pm; Admission $ 18

INSTALLATION Fridays, May 9, through June 20, 2003, 8 pm – 12 midnight; $ 4

BROADCAST Saturday, May 3, 10:30 pm, Mantra TV, MNN Ch. 56 - TWC; Ch. 110 - RCN

MELA Foundation presents the world premiere live performance by Jung Hee Choi of her Composition in the style of La Monte Young’s 1960 sustained friction sounds in a setting of RICE, a video sound installation, in collaboration with Marian Zazeela’s environment, Imagic Light, on Sunday, May 4, 2003 at 9:00 pm, in the Dream House, 275 Church Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY. Concert Admission $18; $14, Seniors and Students with ID. The video sound installation will be open on Fridays, May 9 through June 20, from 8 pm to 12 midnight. Admission $4.

Choi has written:

”RICE contains abstract and non-objective images and sounds. The video is a realization of ever-changing sustained images. There can be an ever-larger number of fluctuations of ever-smaller amplitude. It is not a repetitive optical pattern but a process in time that reflects the self-organized formation systems used by all living things in nature to create structure.

The work was inspired by the visionary artists, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. For the music, Composition in the style of La Monte Young’s 1960 sustained friction sounds, I used a cooking pot as a resonating body and set it into vibration through circular motion with a wooden rice paddle. In the audio installation the audience hears the amplification of multiple layers of the recorded sounds. Through amplification, the higher partials become more clear and audible. This unconventional instrument generates harmonics in systems of both rational and irrational intervals. I perform in a state of focus on the universe of the sound, allowing the vibrations to materialize with a minimum of manipulation. I will use the same instrument and technique in this world premiere live concert performance, accompanied by the multiple overlays of the pre-recorded audio environment.

"The video and sounds are produced independently and have no relation except my intention to exploit the phenomenology of the media. When presented together, they resonate with a highly metaphorical sensibility. Over periods of time, relationships gradually emerge: the audience can experience the precise synchronization of video and audio as both elements in the piece traverse a reciprocal universality, and the human mind constantly seeks logic and the interrelationship of information. This work invites the audience to explore their own spirituality and share an exalted state of coexistence. The environmental aspects of the work will be sounding before the audience enters, then the live performance will begin—and end. The environment will continue.”

In Zazeela’s environment Imagic Light, pairs of colored lights are projected on symmetrical mobile forms to create seemingly three-dimensional colored shadows in a luminous field. Within this field, the appearance of Choi’s Rice images obtains a rare synchronicity, offering new levels of perceptual manifestation.

MELA's programs are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.

Jung Hee Choi has worked in a variety of contemporary media: in painting, drawing, video, photography, sculpture, and multi-media installations, with several solo and group shows in New York City and Germany. Utilizing both traditional and highly experimental techniques, Choi’s vision has led to the development of a unique artistic language. Ancient and universal themes inform her work in a process of assessing and defining the nature of reality. Her inquiry focuses on how we perceive being and consciousness, and ultimately, how ideas representing the interaction of opposites intertwine with one another. This pursuit began to direct Choi toward television as a medium of expression. She began exploring television as a process of communication and, more specifically, how ultra-ultra high frequency becomes visible phenomena evolving from the mixture of mind and camera, to attain an instantaneous reaction from a broad spectrum of viewers.

Choi is a founding producer and director for Mantra TV, a cable and webcast vehicle for advanced arts in New York City and Korea. Her programs feature original works of art, music, dance, experimental film, and discuss the creative processes of art, abstract video, and performance. Since September 2001, programs produced by Choi for Mantra TV have been streamed onto the web; visitors to the website are invited to experience both established and evolving repertoires. In 1999, Choi became a disciple of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela in the study of music and art, with the red-thread ceremony in 2003. Since 2002 she has performed as vocalist in their Just Alap Raga Ensemble. Choi has collaborated with Young and Zazeela to produce long-term video documentation of their lives and work, including the Dream House and affiliated events. She is the artistic consultant and director of camera and lighting for Jacqueline Caux's forthcoming documentary on Young and Zazeela.

Selected Installations and Exhibitions:

Video Installations and Performances

"One Comprehends Plethora, Plethora Comprehends One," Regenbogenstadl, Polling, Germany, 2002
"Rice, a video and sound installation", Open Gallery, NYC, 2002
"Jung Hee Choi Video Art", Sound Charles Curtis, Diapason, NYC, 2001
"Vespers 03," sound by Charles Curtis & Donald Miller, NYC, 2000
"Sumptuous Bars," Sound by Michael J. Schumacher, Gale Gates et al, Brooklyn, NY, 2000
"One Comprehends Plethora, Plethora Comprehends One," Gallery Hinterconti, Hamburg, Germany, 2000

Telecasts

"Sumptuous Bars," MNN, NYC, 2000
"One Comprehends Plethora, Plethora Comprehends One," MNN, NYC, 2000
Jung Hee Choi Video Art, "Sleep," MNN, NYC, 1999

Exhibitions

Korean American Contemporary Artists, Oil Paintings, New Jersey, 1999
Group Show, Sculpture, Art Students League, NYC, 1998
Group Show, Oil Paintings, Art Students League, NYC, 1997

Performances with La Monte Young Marian Zazeela Just Alap Raga Ensemble, vocalist

In Memoriam Pandit Pran Nath, Iselin, NJ, March 23, 2003
Birthday Tribute to Pandit Pran Nath, NYC, November 3, 2002
In Memoriam Ustad Hafizullah Khan, NYC, August 22, 2002

Performance Art

"Nuclear," Space Untitled, NYC, 2000

Collection

"Transition," 2000, Rubber & Design Cast Sculpture, Gammiteria

Photography

The Village Voice, New York, September, 2002
New York Times, Art & Leisure, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2000
The WIRE, Issue 193, London, 2000
Catalog of Marian Zazeela Drawings, Polling, Germany, 2000
Catalog for festival 4 pianoforti, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1999

See www.mantratv.com for further information.