A digital archive of Asian/Asian American contemporary art history

Korean Roulette

48x48x10 inches (h x w x d)
1992
mixed-media installation

"The mixed-media installation incorporates four arms mounted on a circular disc that rotates like a fan. Vegetables and daily necessities sold in the ubiquitous Korean groceries (where Choi worked to support himself) are arranged in a circle around the disc-like clock numbers. At the end of the fan arms are four bloody hands that endlessly circle over the store items. The work is a stunning comment on the violent confrontations between Koreans and African-Americans that have occurred in Korean groceries from Los Angeles to New York. The artist's presentation is detached: he is simply presenting elements in the struggle for Korean-American survival and affluence in the New World in a most intriguing form."--from Orientations, July 1994.

Style/Period

humor; kinetic (style)
Korean Roulette
Source: Digital Image