Introduction

Choe U-Ram【stil laif】

“It breathes. It flickers. It flashes. It whispers.”
The dancing butterflies gather like an amorphous tree. The rhythmic fluttering of the alluring wings beat with endless vitality and spirit of the people of Taiwan, bursting forth.

Korean artist Choe U-Ram 's art work can be situated in the comprehensive context of aesthetics, sculpture, natural science, sociology, and the history of civilization development. He creates mysterious yet fascinating mechanical installations with stainless steel, delicate metals, electric motors, thermo sensors, and LED lights. His work simulates the breath of life, transforming machines into living organisms. Each art work undergoes a long process of evolution materializing into marvelous forms that are both strange and familiar, hailed as 'Anima Machine', opening a new era of art and science into the realm of mechanical movement art.

“As an artist, Choe U-Ram is best known for his biomorphic mechanical sculptures that move slowly as if floating in the air or swimming in the water”, according to Miwako Tezuka, the Associate Curator of Asia Society Museum in New York City. As for his works, they achieve “the rare feat of inspiring wonder in a broad audience without making overt concessions to the outsider”, so states Thea Costantino, column writer of the Daily Serving as well as a member on the Board of Directors at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in Australia. “His works are definitely more than the excitement of looking at moving art pieces or at something completely new. Instead he invites us to reflect on the future of the human race.”, said Hyesoo Woo, the chief curator of Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. Brilliant Ideas, the television program on Bloomberg Business channel, refers to Choe as “one of the fastest rising artists in South Korea. If you haven’t heard of him, you will. A self-taught robotics wit, U-Ram takes kinetic art, or moving sculptures, to a whole new level.”

In 2006, the Mori Art Museum of Tokyo invited Choe for a solo exhibition titled “City Energy”. Choe attempted a presentation of how an artist might imagine the city of Tokyo. Choe thus exclusively created 'Urbanus', a set of mechanically powered sculptures mimicking life forms. This virtual clan of organisms have a system resembling that of plants, which photosynthesize solar energy. The 'Female Urbanus' has a shape similar to that of a flower, and directly incepts urban energy. When it opens its leaf-like body parts to release the incepted energy as light, the 'Male Urbanus' prowls around waiting for the moment that light is released, and opens its leaf-like body parts to receive the photons. The organic species lives on city energy, inhabiting the air at about 200m above ground, coexisting with humans peacefully.

"Urban Energy" is Choe U-Ram’s conception and interpretation of each distinctive city, created by his enigmatic and whimsical use of mechanical art installation, crossing boundaries of aesthetics, natural science, mechanics and mythical allegory. His imagery depicts an exquisite complexity and opulence, successfully manipulating rigid steel into the elegant rhythm and warmth of human life. Choe created such an "Urban Energy" unique to Taiwan - the ‘Butterfly Dance’. As time flows, the clustering flutter of the butterfly’s dance and its rhythmic beating wings, symbolizes the infinite exuberance of the people of Taiwan. Unquestionably, ‘Butterfly Dance’, like its predecessors in Tokyo and Liverpool, is poised to become the next prominent focal point on the international art scene.

Choe U-Ram was born in 1970, Seoul, completing his Master of Fine Arts from the Department of Sculpture at Chung-gang University. His parents both majored in art, and his grandfather was the designer of Sibal, the first automobile in Seoul. Perhaps from his family's influence, Choe dreamt that one day he might become an engineer and make robots. “When I first made sculpture and the moment my hands touched the clay, I already forgot that dream about becoming a mechanical engineer. I watched the clay and the shapes it came about and I thought, this is it. This is what I am going to do for the rest of my life.” It was a course in his junior year, and there the students were asked to make the sculpture move, no matter if it was by hand, wind power, or mechanical equipment. Choe bought a second-hand motor and made the first moving sculpture in his life. Even though he never studied mechanical engineering, and that piece of work broke down in five minutes, it encouraged Choe to pursue kinetic art and redefine its course.

To Choe, to move is without a doubt a testament of life. He began to experiment on technologies in his art; while also reflecting on modern society and technologies in his works. In 1998, Choe gave his first solo exhibition “Civilization Host”, where all the works were presented as kinetic art works. For instance, the work "A-life Laboratory" was an experiment of the life of a larva growing in a test tube. This could be seen as an early version of 'Anima Machine'; it disclosed Choe’s creative contexts and the core of his ideas through the years; developing into his hyper-kinetic art, mimicking the life form of today.