Meet Dong Ho Cho | Art & design creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dong Ho Cho and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi DONG HO, how do you think about risk?
Risk taking is the way to push myself to intentionally make a turning point in my life. When I become familiar with some situation or condition, I feel comfortable and adaptable. However, on the other hand, it means I settle for the present and set a limit of my life. In this situation, ‘risk’ is something opposite to safe and familiar situations and risk taking makes me awake pushing me to break out from safe and monotonous life and to challenge myself.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The background of my journey into art is a little different from others. I was a business administration student preparing to start a business until I was 27. While thinking about items for my business, I thought that the importance of art would increase in the future world, so I went to art school to study art. At first, I tried to learn about design, which is a bit closer to business, but I wanted to explore more fundamental questions about art and design, so I went to the sculpture department. Life in the sculpture department was really confusing at first, since I had no foundation in art. Fortunately, due to the nature of modern art, which does not place much importance on technical elements, I was able to solve my work with a conceptual approach even though I lacked artistic techniques. The business administration approach of analyzing the essence of a problem and finding a solution with the insight gained from it was also very helpful in my art work. Through this approach, I wanted to convey a message that makes people think through my art work. Of course, art work itself cannot provide a solution to a problem. However, it is clear that it can be a stimulus that makes people think again about a problem that they usually forget and live with. A topic I am particularly interested in is people looking at everything in their daily lives a little more critically. We should not just accept the information given to us in the spaces we live in, but question its reality at least once. I hope my work can be a catalyst for this.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For the trip in London,
1. Tower of London – Tower Bridge – Five Guys Tower Bridge(lunch) – Borough Market – Tate Modern – Big Ben – SOHO(dinner)
2. National Gallery – Covent Garden(lunch) – The British Museum – SOHO – China Town(dinner)
3. Camden Market(lunch) – Brick Lane & Shoreditch(dinner)
4. Hydepark(lunch picnic) – V&A Museum – Natural History Museum – High Street Kensington(dinner)

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?
First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my parents. Without their support, love and encouragement, I wouldn’t have been able to start art. When I decided to transfer to art school from business school to learn art, they encouraged me to do that even though other friends of mine started to get a job in big companies. Thanks to them, I was able to make a turning point in my life by challenging myself to start art. Also, I would like to thank to the UK because the experience of study abroad life in the UK inspired me to think of learning art for future career. Art and design world I have seen in the UK gave me an insight that art and design would become much more important for the world in the future.

Website: https://www.dongho-cho.me

Instagram: cho_i_dongho

Other: dongho.cho.91@gmail.com