esther [at] estherchoi [dot] net
Esther Choi (b. Toronto) is a Korean-Canadian multidisciplinary artist working primarily with themes related to identity and worldmaking. Trained in photography and architectural history, her artwork and writing investigate how concepts of nature, technology and notions of the human have shaped and been shaped by worldmaking practices.
Choi is also interested in the intersections between image-making and dialogical and participatory practices. Recent works include Le Corbuffet (Prestel 2019), an artist's book that adopts the form of a cookbook. In 2020, she initiatied Office Hours (2020–), a socially-engaged initiative that cultivates the sharing of liberatory worldmaking knowledge by and for creative practitioners who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
Choi's work has been exhibited internationally and written about in T Magazine, 032C, Vanity Fair, Vogue, MOLD, PIN-UP and more.
She has published critical essays in Artforum, Architectural Review, E-Flux Architecture, Art Papers, Journal of Architectural Education and SSENSE, and contributed essays to a number of exhibition catalogues and anthologies. Choi is the coeditor of Architecture At the Edge of Everything Else (MIT Press, 2010) and Architecture Is All Over (Columbia U, 2017).
Her work has received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Richard Rogers Fellowship, Society of Architectural Historians, Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada and American Council of Learned Societies, among others.
Choi received her PhD in Architectural History and Theory from Princeton University (2019). She holds an MDes from Harvard Graduate School of Design (2008), an MFA from Concordia University (2007), and a BFA from Ryerson University (2001).
Choi is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Cooper Union in New York City.
- Education
-
2019
Ph.D., History and Theory of Architecture, Princeton University, Dept. of Architecture and Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities.
Dissertation: The Organization of Life: Architecture and the Life Sciences in Britain, 1921–1951 -
2008
Master in Design Studies (AP), History and Theory of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
-
2007
Master of Fine Art, Photography/ Studio Arts, Concordia University
-
2001
Bachelor of Fine Art, Photography, Ryerson University
- Recent & Forthcoming Exhibitions
-
2021
Modern Societies I, Texas State Galleries, TX (Solo). Jan. 19–April 11, 2021
-
2020
Prints from Der Mensch, University of Tennessee, TN (Solo. Jan. 27-Feb. 21, 2020.
- Current Research / Writing Projects
-
2021–
The Unsustainable Sublime.
A collection of essays about the aesthetics and ethics of what it means to "design" a climate changed world. -
2021–
The Organization of Life: Architecture, Art and the Life Sciences.
Based on her PhD dissertation, the manuscript explores how the domestication of nature by scientific and cultural workers throughout modern and postwar European history was crucial to forming the notion of an idealized modern subject and the reproduction of inequality. The project was awarded the 2021 Brownlee Dissertation Award from the Society of Architectural Historians, and received dissertation support from the Richard Rogers Fellowship, Princeton University, and the Canadian Center for Architecture.
- Recent Publications
-
2022
"Life, In Theory: The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies," in Radical Pedagogies, eds. Beatriz Colomina, Ignacio G. Galán, Evangelos Kotsioris, Anna-Maria Meister (Cambridge: MIT Press).
-
2021
"The Interpretation", Solicited: proposals, E-flux Architecture and ArkDes, Print and Web.
-
2019
“Sustainability’s Image Problem.” Library Stack for the Oslo Architecture Triennale.
- Artist Books
-
2019
Le Corbuffet: Edible Art and Design Classics (Prestel)
- Anthologies
-
2017
Architecture Is All Over, coeditor (Columbia U; with Marrikka Trotter)
-
2010
Architecture At the Edge of Everything Else, co-editor (MIT Press; with Marrikka Trotter,)
- Recent Talks & Events
-
2021
"A New Model for Mutuality," New Models Lecture Series, Architectural Association
-
2021
Panelist, Kinship & Advocacy Archipelagos: Architectures for the Multiverse with Esther M Choi, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Marie-Louise Reynolds, moderated by Elise Misao Hunchuck May 8, 2021.
-
2021
Artist Talk, Texas State Universities, April 7, 2021.
-
2021
"The Nature of the Beast," Racism, Classism and the Constructed Environment Lecture Series. Parsons The New School. March 30, 2021.
-
2020
“The Unsustainable Sublime”, Cooper Climate Talks, The Cooper Union.
- Recent Press
-
2021
Jess Myers, "Conversation: Esther Choi," Dwell Magazine (Sept./ Oct. 2021): 44–45. Print.
-
2021
Leilah Stone, "Low Ego, High Impact," Metropolis Magazine (July/ August 2021). Print.
-
2021
Wanda Lau, "Esther Choi: Courage Is a Muscle," Architect Magazine, June 21, 2021.
-
2021
Jack Balderamma Morley, "The second season of Office Hours promises more opportunities for young BIPOC designers." The Architect's Newspaper. (March 4, 2021). Print and web.
-
2020
“Office Hours is shifting the landscape for BIPOC creatives,” Architizer.
-
2020
"Still Life With Fly Swatter, or Hourglass, or Lemons," T: The New York Times Style Magazine
-
2020
"All you can read," Art Review
-
2020
"Meet Esther Choi, Artist and Author of Subversive Cookbook 'Le Corbuffet'," PIN-UP
-
2020
"Punishable: Esther Choi Eats Our Idols," 032c, Issue 37 (Winter 2019/20): 292–93. Print.
- Assignments
-
T: The New York Times Style Magazine
New York Times Magazine
Dazed and Confused
Another Man
Vice
- Credits
-
Website designed by Studio Lin.