Cho Hoon

signed and titled in English, dated 2007 and numbered 1/5 on the reverse

There is a thin crack to the left of the left calf of the girl, measuring no more than 7cm. There is also a small crack on her hair. Otherwise, the work is in good condition overall.
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Beyond the mere beauty of his low-relief sculptures, Cho Hoon's oeuvre addresses uniquely modern issues in society today: gender roles, fetishism, consumerism and consumption, and the 'modern' gaze. His works are not only loaded with nuanced interpretations of the female form, but also investigate the various ways of seeing which exist in society today. Exploring the differences and boundaries of sexuality, Cho indirectly questions the very foundations and understandings that modern society has built and accepted about the female form.

Cho's inspiration for his series of sculptures is drawn from jjirashi, small, business card-like flyers with young girls in overtly sexual positions offering 'special services' with a number and a fake name. As his primary motif, Cho retraces the images of the women he believes 'mistake sexuality for beauty,' using their explicit poses to create sculptures, but moreover, to expose how society's has surrendered them to the process of objectification and fetishism. The women in the flyers are transformed into objects of desire, and as such, commodities which have a perceived value. However, with the involvement of sexuality and desire, their value is manifested in the eyes of the beholder, most likely, a man, and they become objects of fetish. Today, digital media has become the dominant.mes thod of consumption, the analog attempts of distributing these flyers, through newspapers and by hand, have not only become obsolete, but entirely futile. Cho's sculptures, in essence, champion these women in the flyers, but creating them on a large scale, too big to be physically possessed by any man. There existence between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional emphasizes the artist's intention to resist possession.

In recreating the silhouettes of these women, Cho reveals the constant tension between 'the aesthetic of cheap sexuality and traditional naked figures.' Like the sculptures of ancient Greeks and the Romans, Cho captures the supple, fleshy tones of their skin, but rather than idealizing his figures, he reproduces them as they are in reality. The disparity between ideas of the nude and the naked exist simultaneously, together as one entity, and at odds with one another; much like if a classical sculpture of Venus was placed in a modern pornography. Cho confuses the concept of the gaze, rather than presenting the culturally dominant 'male gaze' which controls and often oppresses the female, the artist attempts to free the women 'trapped in these business cards, each in their own kind of prison,' he explains. Replica Shoes 's is very pleased to be offering Nurse (Lot 667), a prime example of Cho's oeuvre, epitomizing this critical artist's ideas of modern society and its various paradoxes. The irony of his work, however, lies in the fact that once you see his sculptures, it is hard to steer your own gaze away.