I first met David Choe in Idaho this past summer. I'd known about his work for a long time but hadn't ever met the mischief in person. Our first conversation went something like this (and yo, totally paraphrasing here):
David: Are you full blood Asian?
Me: Yeah.
David: You're a fake Asian.
Me: What?! No way.
David: Were you born here?
Me: No, I was born in Saigon.
David: Can you speak the mother tongue?
Me: Yeah. Three, actually.
David: Have you been back to the homeland?
Me: Yeah. And I can't wait to go back. I love Viet Nam.
David: Me too. You know, Korea's taking over Viet Nam.
Me: Okay.
And that was the genesis for the rest of the banter that would continue for nearly a week. So it was a real pleasure to see David at the Giant Robot Biannale at the Japanese American National Museum tonight. It was cool to see his giant mural. To hear his anecdote about purchasing the throwing stars. And to hear David say to me at The Standard after party, "You can only hang out here if you don't take any pictures," ignoring the fact that plenty of other peeps were snapping away. But, of course, David.
