In many faiths spread throughout the world's population, stone has a profound bond with the soul; from which its sacredness derives and for which it is the chosen material for temples; venerated often with rituals whose roots were founded at the beginning of time.

As with all things celestial, stone has assumed more than once a role as mediator between man and divinity; as was the case with Omphalus of Delphi and the "Black Stone" of Cibele. Even today the black stone of Kaaba at Mecca confirms man's reverence for stone as a spiritual material. The role that stone has played in the mythologies of various populations is anything but secondary. In some cultures it was attributed with the power to create life itself. It is enough to remember the Greek myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha; who having survived the great deluge repopulated the earth by throwing stones over their shoulders and transforming them into men. Perhaps stemming from this is the myth of Prometheus, the father of the human race, believing that some stones had the odor of humans.

The relationship between man and stone does not belong only to western poetic myth. History confirms the existence of this bond even in the Orient. In China, the Great Yu was said to have been born from a stone; an event which was repeated with the birth of his son Chi. In Vietnam, as legend has it, the farmers were convinced that stone which was hit by the cultivator would bleed.

It is clear that a large part of figurative statuary owes its origin to the age-old conviction rooted deep in the psyche that there exists a special bond between man and stone. An effigy of man created in stone is no more than a method to render his memory eternal, or as a means to defeat death. For the Egyptians, indeed the rendering of the human form provided a dwelling for the departed soul or the Vital Spirit (Ka), who at the moment of death abandoned his body returning in spirit to inhabit the stone likeness. The Pharaohs had likenesses of themselves made for this aim and in the Valley of Kings there are two wings of carved Pharaohs who reigned throughout the various dynasties.

Hence, sculpture is an act of life or, to be more specific, a way to transmit life to an inert material that one sculpts. The Greeks and Michelangelo perceived this. From the Greeks, we were given the myth of Pygmalion who, having fallen in love with a statue of Aphrodite which he had sculpted, was granted a wish by gods who gave life to the statue. Michelangelo, at the termination of the sculpture of Moses, as the story goes, hit the statue with a hammer exclaiming "why don't you speak?".

Naturally in each case we are dealing with a projection of the unconscious where the vital energies of the artist are transmitted to the sculpture. The mystery of art is rooted in the awakening of the unconscious but it is solidified in the act of transferring the vital energy of the artist to the work.

To understand the dialogue that Keum-Hwa Choi has transformed through her sculptures for many years, one needs to keep in mind the significance of man's relationship to stone from the beginning of time. Since arriving in the marble capital of Carrara in 1985 where she studied at the local Academy of Fine Arts, she has continued to refine her search for plastic form based on the profound concept of spiritual inspiration, rooted in the mysteries of cosmic phenomena evident in the works A Part of the World (1 988), Waves and Clouds, Fallen Tree (1 989), Meeting of Sky and Clouds, Waves(1991), Long Travel(1993), in both versions of Union (one executed in 1988 and the other larger version at the Symposium of Muju, Korea in 1993) and the two versions of Black Hole (the smaller and the larger produced in the 1992 symposium at Erba, Italy).

Obviously the flow of water and consequently of time (the latter represented by dry leaves) has always held an interest for Keum-Hwa Choi. In her work Long Travel, three leaves are drawn along by a current of water signifying the progression of time upon the metaphorical leaves. In another work Time (1 994) she wanted to symbolize the incessant sedimentation of time using a thousand leaves of terracotta piled one on top of another as if they were symbolic of the days of our lives already gone, or existence represented by specks of dust which are deposited each day on the earth's surface creating a sort of "Work in -Progress". This concept of "Work in Progress" is creatively suggested and demonstrated through the installation process of leaves in variety of configurations. Speaking of metaphors in Keum-Hwa Choi's case brings one back to her animated concept. In the work Rest Time(1988), it is that concept which transforms a lamp and a discarded pair of shoes laying on the ground into a symbol for a moment of life. Most certainly this work is autobiographical leading us back to the time of its execution in 1988. . It is undeniable that there transpires an ancestral sacredness in many of Choi's works. It is my opinion that this sacredness is best manifested in the works which include trees, which as noted, have a profound connection once again with life and the soul. It is not by chance that Keum-Hwa Choi titled a 1990 work Old Confine which depicts a fallen tree trunk tied with a broken cord, frayed at the end. In this instance it is not a case of simple boundry marking, rather. we are -asked to look upon an old frontier which belongs to a sphere of remote magical belief where both the rope and the tree are laden with vital significance and symbolism.

In the work Sky-Earth-Man(1993), Keum-Hwa Choi presents a sort of "tree of plenty", a symbol for the earth's fertility in the form of a monumental sculpture which shoots up towards the sky at the Energy Park Pavilion in Taejon Expo '93 in Korea. It is imbued with sacred symbolism in that it arrives at tying together the earth and the sky, assuming a role of a mystic tree or even the world's axis which forms the base for many beliefs both religious and folkloristic.

That Keum-Hwa Choi assimilates tree and man are evident in many works. In the sculpture Boy in the Tree (1 994) where the boy is there but not visible, it is not so much because he is hidden by the leaves of the tree, but because the tree itself is easily transformed into the form of a man with a large crown of hair. In other works, man is seen as an empty bark, a tree without its soul, so to speak, is evident in The Incomplete Watchman(1989), Rest(1991), Mask(1992), Watchman and Thinking(1994). In each one of these works (contrary to the saying "Clothes do not make the man') the clothes do indeed make the man, or as it were the clothes create the resemblance of man in his absence. Watchman is composed of a hat, a jacket, trousers and gloves which remains incomplete because he is devoid of human substance. In this case, as in others, Keum-Hwa Choi wants to tell us that unfortunately in this world we live in, appearances carry more value than that within which it is contained, meaning that man has lost his identity only to don a social mask which he can hide behind.

This concept comes from Jung's theories. Using the latin term for mask, which was "persona", Jung spoke of "personal" attitudes to indicate those which every individual assumes to show his desired image in society and in life.

Keum-Hwa Choi goes even beyond. For her, man is rarely but a marionette, a victim of the existential traps which he himself has created, traps which empty and exhaust him, (Tired Marionette, 1990). Only a sense of futility results from attempts to escape from this, by now fatal condition, (Escape of the Marionette, 1992)

As we can assess from these few examples, Keum-Hwa Choi's style is quite articulate, not only because this young Korean sculptress (as is the case with all youth) is trying different ways of artistic expressions and search for the path that will lead to her own achievements, but also because her animated concept, as anything dealing with soul, makes her sculpture extremely mobile and changing.

From there comes the constant metamorphosis of Keum-Hwa Choi's creativity who seems to have started discovering that inside a shell there might be a treasure ("Treasure Chest") and bark might harbour new life as in "Metamorphosis of the Goddess".

Keum-Hwa Choi has been working very hard and has managed to develop gradually, a positive manual dexterity switchable to her artistic purposes. She has freed herself from the insecurities of her first production, from when the doubts of execution had influenced even her ideas; hence, leading her towards either simplified or baroque solutions even if her imitative instinct has saved her from the pitfalls of naive simplicity into pleasant artistic results. For instance That That Remains (1 988), showing a book on a pillow is an anticipation of later works where the book, with a touch of intelligent irony, takes the place of the head in Doctor (1 992) and Professor(I 994).

Her acquired technical skills have also enriched a decorative sense which has always been a part of the artist, manifested in such works as A Part of the World, with its intricate spider web, the weft of a tire in Escape of the Marionette, and the surfaces of more recent works like Treasure Chest, which contains a tiny stone ring and the precision of the scales on Metamorphosis of the Goddess.

She is a sculptress rich with ideas that, even though they come from her own personal philosophy, manage to touch the buttons of irony. In the last two or three years, Keum-Hwa Choi has moved towards a more mature style where she has given space to her delicate sensitivities in working the surface as we can see in Black Hole and even more evident in Long Travel. She has undergone a maturation that leaves one full of hope for this sculptress's future. She is young, but already rich with a creative past.