Jae-Eun Choi
Forests of Aśoka
September 11 (Sat.) – December 26 (Sun.), 2010

The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in a Japanese museum by the Korean female artist Jae-Eun Choi. For her theme, Choi has chosen the image of the tree, inspired by the story of the great Emperor Aśoka of India. The famed propagator of Buddhism ordered each subject in his kingdom to plant and care for five trees, each with a different purpose: one for the curing of diseases, one for fruit, one for firewood, one for house building, and one for flowers. Aśoka called them the “five small forests.”