Artist of the Month: Eunsuh Choi

Our Artist of the Month for January is Korean artist Eunsuh Choi and her out-of-this-world ethereal glass sculptures that look delicate, but make a huge statement.

Choi has a Master's degree in glass from Kookmin University in Korea. She travelled to the USA to further her studies in the medium at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), where she earned an MFA in Glass. Using aflameworking techniques, she creates objects and installations completely fused of glass threads.

It may surprise you that such large and complex structures are made from a small torch that she uses to bend and join the glass, comanding them to her will. Many of her works are inspired by Korean textiles she had encounted in Korea.

Many of her works combine a very strict form and scturcture in which organic material exist and nevigate their way out of. In "Forbidden Hope", we see a root form suspended in the middle of a cuboid matrix. for Choi, "In my current work I combine a box or house with the organic form of the tree. The tree becomes a metaphor for the self -- reaching, climbing, singing, and striving. I place the tree inside the box or house, a cage with triangular symmetrical shapes as the object that lives and breathes and has the capability of growing or dying.

It represents my struggle inside the box of my existence when, as a foreigner and woman, I come across limitations on the attainment of my dreams. I am in the process of flameworking my way out of the box.”

There is a sense of a personal story to Choi's work, but at the same time, struggle is a universal emotion we all encounter within our human condition, and thus a situation or a state which many of us experience; the desire to progress and yet being hindered by obstacles and challenges is not unfamiliar to us. In this way, Choi's work speaks to a wide range of people from various backgrounds and strikes a chord with them.

In Choi's work, each glass thread is stacked on one another like a delicate, floating house of cards, seeming almost structurally improbable. In some way, this medium and technique reflects the themes of struggle and ambition, a delicate part of our human nature and yet so essential to building our own strength.

Choi's craftsmanship and mastery of her medium is unparalleled and and cannot be denied. The sensitivity as which she approaches her sculptures adds an additional dimension that creates a fantasy that the viewer is still able to connect with.

See more of Eunsuh Choi's works here.