51. NATHAN VON CHO: A SPACE BETWEEN THE BOW AND THE STRINGS.
‘I really wanted to be a vessel: M-A speaking through my violin and I.’ N.V.C
Nathan Von Cho photographed by Eva Vermandel, 11th January 2024, London.
Before I ever heard you play I saw you play, when we walked into the David Zwirner gallery for the first time, you closed your eyes and performed without a physical violin. I found that to be fascinating - watching you play I was amazed at how both physical and metaphysical the process of creating and performing music is... can you expand upon your creative process?
David Zwirner has such a unique presence about it and I also noticed that my speaking voice carried like we were in a church. I guess as soon as I found out the position I was going to play in, without much thought going into it, I naturally closed my eyes and imagined how the violin would complement the acoustics of the Gallery. This way I know what I can get away with and how I bring the space and violin to life.
Nathan Von Cho, David Zwirner Gallery, London, December 2023.
Your relationship with your violin is very particular, I remember you saying that there was a period of time when you wanted to reject what you knew, and yet you chose to perform with it - can you tell me about Nathan and the violin?
My violin has been my partner in crime for more than 20 years and I actually cannot imagine a world without it. Of course - having gone through childhood & my teenage years (maybe even up to my early twenties) I had my battles where everything else in life seemed so much more appealing. Be it rugby, friends or just anything that was not the violin. They even wanted to take away my music scholarship back in secondary school because I was that distant from it but my violin teacher at the time Mr Burov, stopped the music department from stripping me of my scholarship saying: "just wait, Nathan will come back to the violin" and I think this quote sums up my relationship with my instrument very accurately. Looking back, I was extremely lucky with all my violin teachers. They really filled the father role for me growing up which I in retrospect, desperately needed. It was more than just violin lessons, now they are beautiful memories for me so, as I also teach music, I try to carry the message as I was shown, ‘from the heart to the heart’.
I knew that I really wanted you to be involved with the opening ceremony of the new issue of M-A because you have an energy that is rare and urgent. A contagious energy that I first encountered last year. I asked each of the artists presenting to choose an image from issue 3 to reinterpret in their own way - your choice was fast and fascinating - can you recall the process of developing work for Thursday 11th January?
I do remember that moment and process. Yes - it was indeed quite fast and I was torn between two images for a brief period but I really like the style of the main character, (Boy with Pink Aerosol, Stroud Green, 2006, Eva Vermandel) the cap, the jawline even. Something about that image was screaming inside me that I could relate to, the style and the colours. One quite amusing fact about this process is that only after I chose the picture (three days before the event to be exact) I realised the boy actually looks like he is playing the violin! It could also be a phone but obviously, the first idea appeals to me more. There is that sense of brushing someone away, multitasking or even impatience and you mentioned that my energy is urgent (which is a word I haven't heard before to describe me) and the boy in the picture - looking at it now has - definitely an urgency.
There is evidently a lot of discipline which is invested in the pursuit of mastering the violin, so many rules and yet you seem to break down these rules when you play. That particular feeling of suspended charge that comes with the risk-taking of adventuring off-piste, which your audience was transfixed in witnessing - can you expand on the relationship with boundaries when you create and perform?
If I had to use one phrase to describe the event or even my life, it is "rule-breaking" not always in the most artistic of manners as I almost got kicked out of school for not adhering to the rules. You specifically asked me to wear what I wanted and be myself (when I performed`) which for a classical musician is not something you hear every day. I feel like classical music at the current stage is like a 5-course meal and sometimes you just want a snack. I would like to be the bridge to make classical music more accessible and for people to approach it lightly without having to mentally prepare or take out 90 minutes of their lives. Going back to rule breaking, I only really composed the first 4 lines of the melody and for the rest, I just let something else channel through me so if you ask me to repeat what I did on the night: I probably couldn't. That is the beauty of it where it is something that won't be recreated exactly. This event definitely was an eye-opener for me to really just go for ideas I have in my head because that space, the present moment sharing with my fellow performers & the audience. I really wanted to be a vessel: M-A speaking through my violin and I. One last point to make would be engaging with the audience. Not in a talking to them verbally kind of way but feeling out how full the space is, how much of the sound they absorb and how much I can push, and what I would like to do, which at the time, is just in my head until the bow meets the strings.
Culturally you are diverse in your lived experiences, South Korea, Berlin, and London - how have you been influenced by your journeying through these spaces and how have you explored this knowledge within your practice as an artist working today?
I am super grateful to have had the opportunity to live in different countries, mix with different cultures, and be a part of religious cultures from where I do not originate - but on top of that - one common denominator, they all have is music - in my experience, the violin. Having a Russian Guru who was only in Berlin due to half of Berlin being split due to historical & political circumstances, playing for Jewish weddings growing up, speaking Hebrew and even playing for the Royal family's Christmas reception. These are experiences and influences one cannot take for granted and have affected my music-making massively.
Nathan Von Cho preforming with Zaineb Lassoued, Callum Helcke, Max Shoroye, Xiangyin Cho and Nandi at the launch event of M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) issue 3, David Zwirner Gallery, London, 11th January 2024. Photographed by Sunny Sun.
Special thanks: Eva Vermandel and Sunny Sun. Sara Chan and Aoife Kelly-McCann - David Zwirner.