Die Zeichnung „Lelia“ betitelt sie in Klammern „Ich“. Es ist Lelia Caetani aus einem Gemälde von Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, genannt Balthus, ein bemerkenswert unerotisches Bild der 20jährigen Lelia, Tochter des Auftraggebers aus der Familie Caetani. Balthus selbst nannte das Gemälde „das Monster“. Die Künstlerin übernimmt die Nachdenklichkeit, den scharfen Blick des Gesichts und die verhärmt wirkende, keineswegs jugendliche Frauengestalt. Aus dem großstädtischen Garten an der Champs Elyssee wird bei Choi-ahoi eine verzaubert wirkende nächtliche Natur mit überdimensionierter Mondscheibe. Die Künstlerin sieht die Gestalt und damit auch sich selbst als Wächterin und Betreuerin dieser Gartenlandschaft und weist den Betrachter gleichzeitig daraufhin, dass Lelia Caetani der lüsternen Darstellungsweise von Balthus‘ üblichen Jungmädchenbildern entgangen ist.

Die Bilder von Choi-ahoi in der Ausstellung sind voll von motivischen Anspielungen und kunsthistorischen Rückgriffen, sei es auf Bilder der Maria lactans oder etwa Botticellis Geburt der Venus, man denkt an die mittelalterlichen Paradiesgärtlein, die im christlichen Sinne Orte der Reinheit und Jungfräulichkeit waren und häufig mit kunstvollen Seidenblumen und Reliquien, also Körperteilen bestückt waren. Die Welt von Kyung-Hwa Choi-Ahoi ist komplex, in ihren Inhalten wie in ihrem Zeichen- und Malstil, der mal sperrig mal flüssig elegant ausfällt, zeigt sie sich aber immer distanziert.

Kyung-hwa Choi-ahoi ist seit 2019 Professorin für Zeichnen an der Kunsthochschule Weißensee Berlin.With her surreal-looking plant pictures populated with anatomically precise body parts, Kyung-hwa Choi-ahoi already gave insights into a topic in the solo exhibition “Mutterkorn” in 2014 in the Gallery and in 2016 in the Solo Exhibition “Augen äpfeln Nasen blühn” (“Eyes apples, noses bloom”) in the Heine Haus Hamburg that she continues in „Ovar“: the garden. The more she dealt with this subject, the greater her interest in what was happening in the garden. For them it is a place where the constant challenges of life can be observed, in which life arises, in which dangers lurk, in which it is a question of survival. She sees in him a general symbol of human life. With the exhibition titled “Ovar” (= ovary), the female element comes to the fore in her most recent work on the subject. For the first time, she gives the portrayed female figures names such as Lada, Rhea and Lelia. All three are characters from Greek and Slavic mythology. Lada is considered the goddess of love, beauty and marriage in Slavic mythology. Rhea, mother of Zeus and Poseidon, belongs to the Titans in Greek mythology and was equated with the „Great Mother“ of Asia Minor Cybele. But it is rather levels of meaning that arise from our cultural heritage that Choi-ahoi wants to resonate with these naming conventions, without referring to the individual stories of the legendary figures.
The drawing „Lelia“ is titled „I“ in brackets. It is Lelia Caetani from a painting by Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, called Balthus, a remarkably unotic image of 20 year old Lelia, daughter of the client from the Caetani family. Balthus himself called the painting „the monster“. The artist takes on the thoughtfulness, the sharp gaze of the face and the careless looking, by no means youthful female figure. At Choi-ahoi, the urban garden on the Champs Elyssee becomes an enchanted nocturnal nature with an oversized moon disc. The artist sees the figure and thus herself as the guardian and caretaker of this garden landscape and at the same time points out to the viewer that Lelia Caetani has escaped the lascivious depiction of Balthus ‘usual pictures of young girls. The pictures of Choi-ahoi in the exhibition are full of motivic allusions and art historical references, be it to pictures of Maria lactans or Botticelli’s birth of Venus, one thinks of the medieval paradise gardens, which in the Christian sense were places of purity and virginity often decorated with ornate silk flowers and relics, i.e. body parts. The world of Kyung-hwa Choi-ahoi is complex, but it is always distant in its content and in its drawing and painting style, which is sometimes bulky and fluid and elegant. 

Kyung-hwa Choi-ahoi is professor of drawing at the Weißensee Art Academy in Berlin since 2019.