JOOYOUNG CHOI: Big Time Dreaming in the Age of Uncertainty will delight visitors with a mixed media, site-specific installation inspired by Choi's ongoing investigation of her Cosmic Womb mythology. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Choi was adopted at the age of one and grew up in Concord, New Hampshire with American parents. In 2007, she was reunited with her birth family. As an adopted child and one of the only Asians living in her New Hampshire community, she grew up feeling different and lonely – her imagination became her creative salvation. Choi is a "world building artist" who lives and works in Houston. She uses puppets, props, home videos, toys and drawings inspired from her childhood to explore her on-going and fictional world, the Cosmic Womb. Choi's installation will resemble a dream-like, make-believe world; viewers will enter the Cosmic Womb, which will include soft sculptures and video stations, as well as puppets and mixed media paintings. The artist will participate in a weeklong residency at AMSET during her installation, interacting with museum visitors throughout the process. Choi will also teach a flower workshop to guests prior to her installation, inviting them to enter her world. AMSET will also present a documentary film about Choi and her work as part of our interpretative programming.
This exhibition is generously supported, in part, by an award from the Edaren Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, Anonymous, the City of Beaumont, the Wesley W. Washburn, M.D. and Lulu L. Smith, M.D. Endowment Fund and the C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers Charitable Foundation.