Eunsun Choi
Cuckoo, Puckuck
The cuckoo bird stands as a symbol of resilience in the face of pandemic ambiguity.
- October 5 - 26, 2023
- Opening: Thursday, October 5, 6:00 — 8:00pm
Throughout history, creative minds have explored themes of plague and contagion. Noteworthy examples such as Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death” and Mary Shelley’s “The Last Man” draw from the authors’ personal encounters with illness, weaving detailed reflections with prophetic insights. These visionary stories, and others like them, have indelibly shaped our collective psyche. How might we craft missives for our future selves amidst the uncertainty of contemporary infectious threats?
Eunsun Choi’s cacophonous installation of cuckoo “clocks” amplifies feelings of discomfort and anxiety. The timepieces, once symbols of status in South Korean households after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, carry echoes of her upbringing—tinged with nostalgia and complexity. Ceramic birds unpredictably burst forth from their makeshift homes, each emitting a distinct Korean onomatopoeia “puckuck!” call, mirroring and magnifying today’s prevailing sense of unease.
Despite the bird’s exceptional adaptability, the Western interpretation of “cuckoo” is synonymous with eccentricity or ailment. Cuckoo, Puckuck conveys this dual narrative: the shifts in human behavior in response to global upheaval, alongside the simultaneous celebration of our resilience and determination.
This exhibition has been generously supported by a 4Culture Arts Project Grant.
About the Artist
Eunsun Choi is a multidisciplinary and conceptual artist born in Korea, currently living in Seattle. She is a graduate of the Hunter College MFA program and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in the DXARTS program. Recent solo installations and exhibitions include the Seattle Art Fair, Out of the Box gallery in Seoul, and the Thomas Hunter Project Space in NYC; her work has also been featured in numerous group shows in New York State, Queens, Brooklyn, and South Korea. Choi has participated in the Sculpture Space Residency in Utica and the Hunter College Ceramic Residency. She was selected for the upcoming NY+20 Artist Residency in China, 2024 and at PLAYA in Oregon, 2024. Her artist team, Jeju Island Artist Collective, was a recipient of the NYFA Queens Art Fund and City Artist Corp Grant in 2021.