Choi Keeryong

Born: 1976
Place of Birth: South Korea

Originally from South Korea, Choi Keeryong came to Britain to complete a Master of Design at Edinburgh College of Art and in 2010, continued to embark on a PhD in Glass and Architectural Glass. Keeryong has exhibited widely across the UK whilst investigating the similarities and differences between cultural groups in terms of their aesthetic perceptions of visual experiences, particularly in relation to unfamiliar materials and surface imagery.

Choi’s motivation for creating this body of work is to explore how the ambiguity of an individual’s cultural interpretation can help to create the state of “uncanni-ness” in the audience’s visual experiences. He believes that this “uncanni-ness” provokes emotions and feelings and Choi manipulates this powerful tool within his artistic practice to promote the awareness of stereotypes in an individual’s cultural understanding.

Developing inlaid colouring techniques inspired by the ancient Korean “Saggam” pottery allows him to explore the state of ambiguity in visual experience by delineating geometric patterns and counterfeit letters onto glass artworks and encapsulating them in between the layers of transparent glass. The use of historical symbolism of tea and the popularity of English manufactured ceramic teapots are the metaphor for the cultural stereotype in both West and East.

‘My artistic approach is inspired by my personal experiences of being in-between-ness in terms of my current cultural location.’