Choi Soowhan’s meticulous works confound viewers. From a distance they appear to be photographs, but they are not. They hold an illusion of depth, but they are flat. Soowhan creates a forest, a field, a vase full of flowers, but how? The artist, born in Korea in 1972, has a complex process. In an interview with Pontone, he explains: “I punctured holes on a laminate sheet using a drill. By creating these holes, I am emptying them out. When I shine light through these holes, they fill in the empty space.... It represents a state of emptiness.” Each image requires tens of thousands of holes of light, which is why Soowhan is called a “light artist.” —Thalia Bonas