Walk in the Park

INFO

Also known as	Woo-Lam (Sam) Choi
Born	1985
Country of Birth	South Korea
Place of Residence	Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Ethnicities	Korean
Artform	Craft/Object, Visual arts
Decades Active	2020s, 2010s

ABOUT

Woo-Lam (Sam) Choi is an artist and designer who studied woodworking and furniture design at Hong-ik University in Korea. Working under the name Walk in the Park, his softly curved one-off pieces are made predominantly with air-dried native and NZ-grown exotic timbers, taking utilitarian forms like platters, vases and mills.

Choi moved to Aotearoa with his wife, Jiho Yun, in 2013 “in search of a better life”. He had the goal to “slow down my life style” which eventually led to the name Walk in the Park. “The name suggests the idea of slowing down, taking in your surroundings and enjoying the quieter moments. Also, most importantly, there is no destination or obvious goal for this journey.”

Initially, Choi did not intend to pursue a career in woodworking, but in 2016 he started learning from some local wood-turners in West Auckland. “The experience of carving and feeling the raw texture, aroma, and characteristics of each type of wood was quite intimidating but also rewarding. Additionally, it was relatively easy to set up a workplace compared to a furniture workshop. From that point on, wood-turning became a crucial part of my life.”

Formerly based in Titirangi in a ‘treetop studio’ and now located in Sandringham, Choi says his ideas are formed through “modern architecture, nature, and even my own stories and emotions”. He consciously draws inspiration from “forms and surfaces in shells, stone and water” as well as in craft materials such as ceramic, metal and textiles in order to develop unique surfacing methods. Much of the time, he begins with a “finished image in his head”, but he notes there are exceptions, and he enjoys seeing what the material invites and allows him to create. “This kind of process could never be done with a preconceived plan, as the object only gives me direction”

The wood he turns is largely sourced from a supplier in Matamata, and most timbers could be “regarded as seconds or failed grade due to the defects, knots or cracks”. He then works with each piece drawing on the philosophy of wabi-sabi, which embraces imperfection as beauty. He considers swamp kauri his favourite timber to work with: “It features various colours and patterns, depending on the environment that it’s been preserved in and the period of time. And when it’s oiled the rich colours pop out magically. Some are highly chatoyant and almost look like gemstones.”

Choi’s practice is deeply embedded in experimentation. In his series Stadium, he introduced a linear texturing technique which he now considers his signature method. Similarly, for the exhibition Beyond Objects, he described an experimentation still in refinement:

I once watched a video of Ernst Gamperl, a renowned wood-turning artist in Bavaria. He used a specific type of sand that reacts with wet oak. After watching the video, I tried to find a substitute for this sand in New Zealand because I wanted to try it myself. During my search, I found out that Muriwai sand has a high iron content and I thought it would work well with wood that has a high tannin content. This is because iron and tannin react together to make the wood turn dark to black. Unfortunately, my experiment didn't work out as I had imagined, but I plan to try again in the future.

This time, I didn't use the sand directly onto the wood as a darkening agent. Instead, I used the sand as a void-blocking agent. This means that the area where the sand contacts the wood will not be affected by darkening agents applied after the sand covers the wood.

Using this sand staining method, I was able to create subtle, various, and gradual tones, which made the object look more attractive.

This trial-and-error refinement reflects how he approaches his work more broadly. “All things happen very slowly, and I proceed with each process with a lot of considerations.”