Art became a balancing force for him, a centre. Raised in a family of artists - his great uncle was the pioneering Korean abstractionist Kim Whanki - he discovered a great sense of comfort from beautiful and aesthetically pleasing works. A weight has been lifted.ĪRT AND MUSIC HAVE intersected in Choi’s life from the very beginning. “I feel that I’m reborn.”Ĭhoi lowers his shoulders and smiles. I realised how precious it is to pay back what I’ve received,” he says. It’s been my motivation, like wanting to fill up a bookshelf with my work. I wrote more than 100 songs over the past five years. But during the bad times, the rough times, my motivation to keep going was the music. “Actually, I was going to seriously stop making music and stop being a musician. “I realised later how much hurt and painful memories I gave to the people around me, my family and fans out there. “This is the first time I’ve spoken this publicly, but I did try to commit suicide about five years ago,” says Choi, looking away, his voice lowering. He described the incident as “the worst moment” of his life, then quietly disappeared from the public eye, leaving only rumours and speculation about what happened next. Keep in mind that this is Korea, where cannabis remains a serious subject - recreational use still carries a sentence of up to five years in prison or a fine of as much as 50 million won. It played out in the news, on social media, in the court of public opinion and, ultimately, in the actual courts as well. While Choi was serving in the military police, a certain drama - one involving marijuana - played out for the artist.
And when your idols leave, they don’t always come back. It’s a simple, if cruel, fact of life for the young fans of Korean boy bands: boys become men and, by law, those men must serve in the military. It wasn’t a forever kind of goodbye, but more of a “see you soon”. IN 2017, ONE OF the world’s biggest pop stars stood on stage and said goodbye to his fans. “This is a time to leap to the next stage of my career and life,” he says with a smile. There are some important things, he tells me, that he’s looking forward to revealing for the first time today. While stars of a certain calibre rarely speak publicly - especially to magazines - without a small army of publicists and management types, he’s alone, save for a translator (“My English teacher,” he says) who joins us to ensure that every word comes out just as intended. When we meet over Zoom, Choi is dressed casually, in a black baseball cap and a blue hooded sweatshirt, but it’s clear he’s been prepared for this moment for a long time. Then, just days before our interview, the news broke: BIGBANG would be making their long-awaited comeback with a new single, and T.O.P would be ending his 16-year contract with their label. When we reached out to Choi for Prestige’s annual Art Issue, he openly discussed his passion for art, which he calls his driving force.
But after completing his service, Choi all but disappeared - from fans, from interviews, from pop stardom - leaving many wondering how he was feeling, and whether he’d ever return. His absence wasn’t meant to be this long - military conscription, mandatory for males in Korea, is a two-year spell. Who better than a creator and a collector to speak on the future of art in Asia?īut Choi stepped away from the limelight five years ago. The dual pop star and art patron is a rare breed: you could look in vain for another who can put names such as Mark Grotjahn and Piet Mondrian into the mouths of millions of young fans. In Hong Kong, he co-curated an auction of Asian and Western art for Sotheby’s that raised millions, with part of the proceeds going to support emerging Asian artists.
He was invited to lend pieces to Seoul’s Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, and he also guest-curated an exhibition for Singapore’s ArtScience Museum. (He also acts.) You might know him better as T.O.P, member of the original Korean music phenom, BIGBANG.Ĭonsidered one of the biggest young collectors of contemporary art in the region, his star has risen considerably in the business during the past decade. But his medium is neither paint nor marble - Choi makes music. SUIT 2728 SHIRT BONBOM SHOES LOUIS VUITTON T.O.P: A Star RebornĪmong the biggest names in art across Asia, only a handful are artists the rest are often collectors, many from positions of wealth and power - people who fill their spaces with the priciest, the rarest, the most hyped of pieces.Ĭhoi Seung Hyun is one of the unique few who occupy the role of both artist and collector.
0 kommentar(er)
