Meet Eunsuh Choi | Artist and Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Eunsuh Choi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Eunsuh, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I am a Korean-born portrait artist and my flameworked pieces are personal narratives, portraits of my own moments of growth. I arrived in the U.S. having already completed a Master’s degree in glass from Kookmin University (S. Korea), but determined to pursue further glass education. I chose the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY as a place where I could both study English and earn a second MFA degree in glass.

I use flameworking techniques to create objects and installations composed of intricately fused glass threads. Sitting in diligent concentration behind a small torch, I bend and join thin glass rods into complex arrangements and systematic structures evoking the textiles I studied in S. Korea.

Today, I form countless tiny glass rods into a cube composed within a perfect hexahedron. I work my way through a psychological journey that juxtaposes aspiration and limitation; meanwhile, the forms in my art shift to reflect the mental work.
I have produced a succession of melting ladders, cages, boxes, and trees. “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.”

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
One of the characteristics that make the human experience such a unique one is that we all share a longing for personal enrichment. The search for individual fulfillment is a deep-seated pursuit within all of us. No matter how significant or superficial one’s ambition might be, it is the presence of aspiration that beckons us as humans to somehow claim or carve out our own understanding of ourselves within our lifetime. Although there is much attention and sensitivity towards the things that make us very different from one another, there is an undeniable connection in that we all desire something better for ourselves. This impulse is the impetus within my sculptural work, work that visually communicates the spiritual essence of human ambition. My work specifically focuses on communicating the graceful flow of our emotional tendencies through the plastic medium of flameworked glass. I like to work sculpturally, utilizing form and its surrounding atmosphere to portray narratives based on the human encounter with success and failure in the pursuit of personal ambition.
I’m interested in portraying human aspiration with organic forms from the new perspective I had about myself within a foreign country. Originally from South Korea, I relocated to the United States. My Korean heritage tends to make me question myself in terms of my direction as an artist and an individual especially here in the USA. To address my interest in human aspiration, I like to integrate my personal philosophy and experience incorporating my Korean heritage into the work to merge my Eastern background and my Western experiences, like how we, as humankind, are unified through the sensation of personal ambition.
The structures that I create within recent work resemble objects that the viewer is familiar with in daily living. Ladders, trees, clouds, boxes, houses, and even hybrids of the five appear as reoccurring formal motifs.
The ladder is an object of strong symbolic references to these thematic interests. There is a certain poetry spoken when making work of this nature, with this material and in the manner that I use glass. These objects are associated with all things dense and structurally sound, whereas my renditions are light and airy— almost celestial. The gloss and glisten that is reflected from the glass construction further imply a spiritual or apparitional quality. It is as if these pieces were composed of light and were revealing themselves unto the viewer as a holy vision, towards a direction above and beyond where they stand.
In my work, I am attempting to create a physical representation of what it feels like to have a personal moment of revelation when standing in the presence of the actual piece. The moment feels as if something sacred is taking place as the viewer visualizes him or herself climbing the dedicate structure in an equally delicate manner— transcending one’s self beyond the realm of physical possibility. Although beautiful looking objects, there is an allure to these pieces that similarly surpasses their physicality in that the viewer not only becomes overwhelmed by what they see, but, more importantly, in what they sense internally.
I use the metaphorical qualities of organic structures within the natural world as motifs for ascension. In a much more lively and asymmetrical composition, I use a similarly delicate assemblage of glass rods to create renditions of a tree form. Although the tree holds many sacred and symbolic connotations, it is apparent that I am interested in using it to make a metaphorical connection to the spirit of human aspiration. Unlike a ladder, this is an object that lives and breathes, has the capability of growing and is equally capable of dying. It is a mortal entity and is a thing that bears many human qualities, but it seems that it’s potential for escalation could be of my main interest. Although all trees start as seedlings, it takes a certain kind of environment and a certain set of circumstances for that seed to gradually grow into its full potential as a tall, budding and healthy tree. There is a unique parallel between the development of any given tree and the human spirit in that there is no redundancy amidst their kind in how either thing develops or what it is they develop into. Nor is there a guarantee that either thing will develop into their full potential. The pieces that I create under the influence of the natural world read as individual narratives, perhaps even as portraiture of certain individuals or moments of my own personal growth. Nevertheless, I use the malleable qualities of glass to bend and curve the material into frozen renderings of limbs and branches that ethereally reach toward some invisible goal above them. Some of the more interesting pieces are those in which I integrate the organic motion of the limbs with the stoic stature of the ladder form.
My recent work carries a quiet, meditative tone that leans heavily towards its spiritual. It’s the kind of work that viewers bask in rather than investigate on behalf of its celestial allure and its ability to evoke introspection. It wouldn’t be accurate to consider me as a spiritually spoken person, nor should my work be considered prophetic. However, there is an undeniable internal and contemplative aura within my work that resonates with our human desire for and pursuit toward something “higher” and “bigger.” I would like to offer a chance for viewers to identify their own dreams with my portrayal of the human need to aspire. We will try every possible approach towards achieving our goals.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well…It all depends on who’s are coming. For first timers,
1. Let’s go to Niagara Falls and get wet! then we can eat buffalo chicken wings that was invented from that city.
2. Visit Corning Museum of Glass to check out museum, try some glass work, learn glass!
3. Flinger lake wineries/ breweries tours with awesome lake view. Have some wine and relax on lake.
4. There are great national/state parks in western NY. Get a cabin, walk on trails, bbq at night following by campfire.
5. Visit Kodak, Eastman, etc local museums as well as visiting local artists studios/shops.
6. Have a dinosaurs bbq which invented in my city, sitting on water falls.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people/organizations I’d like to shoutout for thank you. Mostly I’d like to give it to Pittsburgh Glass Center, Established in 2001, Pittsburgh Glass Center (PGC) is a nonprofit, public-access education center; an art gallery; a state-of-the-art glass studio; a community builder; and a hub for innovation and creativity. PGC has been shown faith in me when I just graduated from RIT, gave me an opportunity to teach and gave me a place to work and live as an artist in residence when I was so struggling to survive and pay bills. Thank you PGC.

Website: www.choiglass.com

Instagram: eunsuhchoi, choiglass.studio, choiglass.shop

Linkedin: Eunsuh Choi

Facebook: choiglass