hyde or die

Choi Jeong-Hwa Welcome 2009

You know how I have been really upset about the lack of discourse surrounding this over-the-top piece at LACMA? Well, who else but my favorite, Christopher Knight of the LA Times, to answer my plee:

A decade ago, New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl famously coined the term “festival art” for this 1990s development. LACMA repeats it out on Wilshire Boulevard with Choi Jeong-Hwa’s party-bunting of red, yellow and blue ribbons gift-wrapping the Ahmanson Building. Titled “Welcome,” Choi’s installation is a decorative adornment as fitting for a Hyundai showroom as for an art museum. via…

June 29, 2009, 11:21am  

Choi Jeong-Hwa HappyHappy, 2009

In addition to this piece comprised completely of items from the 99 cent store down the block, LACMA and Jeong-Hwa have started on a public collaboration piece that will take place at the 6th St entrance and be open to the public on Sunday:

You’re invited to drop by LACMA to help us collaborate on Choi Jeong-Hwa’s HappyHappy—a participatory art sculpture made from discarded plastic goods that’s part of Your Bright Future (which also opens Sunday, by the way).  All you need to do to be a part of the show is bring your orange laundry soap jugs, green strawberry baskets, and other colorful plastic goods to the fences near our Sixth Street entrance where you’ll find zipper ties. Adhere your items to the fence in whatever way you like and voila—you’ve just helped create a bright, playful, and collaborative piece of art for L.A. via…

Taking care of recycling and creating public art at the same time? Way to go guys, I am really excited about this and can’t wait to bring my plastic over.

June 26, 2009, 12:38pm  

Choi Jeong-Hwa Welcome 2009

Someone has dosed my coffee with LSD or something.  I have searched and scoured and employed LACMA google alerts and no one, save me, has written anything about the fact that the entire Ahmanson Building is covered in ribbons.

It’s not on LACMA’s website, they barely mentioned it (no picture) on their blog in a very short interview with the artist that they just posted today, and the only reason it was on their twitter is because I asked them what this was.

The LA Times even has an article about a separate piece by the same artist for the upcoming exhibition and completely left this out.  I know I’m not the only one who has seen it, but why am I the only one talking about it? Remember when Christo did the gates in New York? You couldn’t get away from the publicity. It was in magazines, newspapers, blogs, and TV.  Am I the only one who thinks this is newsworthy? I feel like I’m begging, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask for someone to start a dialogue about this?  I know the show doesn’t open until the 28^th, but this is outside, easy to photograph (surrounded by Irwin Palm Trees and Burden’s Light? Come on!) and it COVERS THE BUILDING YOU CAN’T MISS IT!

I feel like I am talking to walls.

UPDATE: Ok, I guess they have a video on their blog entry about the artist but still.  I feel like this was a real opportunity for some sort of press and they missed it. 

Unless, they aren’t as stoked about the outcome as earlier anticipated? I know that I’m not overwhelmed, or whelmed, for that matter by the end result (quite a few things I would have changed in the art direction department on this one) but still.  It’s something, and something is always better than nothing.

June 19, 2009, 11:05am  

Choi Jeong-hwa, Site of Desire, 2005

May 18, 2009, 1:16pm