Fecundity in the Art of Shin Hyun Jung 2009
The world is a deeply mysterious place, at once rich with incredible diversity and yet swollen with the promise of life and death each and every moment. The cycles within nature unfold relentlessly like desperation borne from necessity. The processes that drive the forces around us always threaten to engulf and annihilate in order for the new to begin. The seesaw to and fro of weather and geological upheaval ensure the destruction of the old and the implementation of new regimes. The world heaves and groans like a cantankerous pregnant women at the brink of delivery. The drama of this recurrent birthing shakes the earth causing realities to collide and altering environments forever. We stand in awe at the power of nature to give life and to decimate it in an instant of time. From the cataclysm comes beauty and fecundity once again.
The human response to the natural environment has always been one of reverence and or resignation. The mystery of recurrent life cycles and rhythms in nature has shaped human societies from the beginning. The attitude of worship and devotion in the face of the unknown is a predictable response. What ties man so closely to the earth is birth and death. Fertility and the growth of new life are a miracle.
How does an artist respond to these overwhelming forces of life? There is essentially the choice to imitate or innovate with what can be seen. Artists respond to either the ideal or the real in their attempt to locate meaning for themselves. Shin Hyun Jung is a man who has chosen the more difficult path of immersing himself in the experience of others in order to make sense of things. He fashions an ideal vision from his experience of the real. Sallying forth on odyssey after odyssey he plunges himself into strange environments in order to lay bare their underlying essence. Like an adventurer of old he looks earnestly for that which is new or unknown. Not content to stay at home in the comfort of his studio he places himself rather at the mercy of the elements willingly. Through this process of movement through foreign environments there occurs a steady accretion of sensory data, which infuses and informs the works he creates. The real is transformed mysteriously by the ideal and leads us to new places of understanding.
Shin employs a wide range of materials in his quest to demonstrate the richness and diversity of natural structures. Seeking to entice the viewer into a dialogue with history or the natural elements he provokes the imagination with his individual treatment of space, colour and surface. In his attempt to stimulate consciousness he sets about placing his creations in odd configurations within a gallery or corporate space or an outdoor environment. Shin works tirelessly across most mediums bringing together photography, sculpture and painting into visually intriguing installations. There is a quality in his work of things both archaeological and scientific where an astute logic and deep sensitivity to the nature of things resides. There is a continual attempt made to tease out the deeper significance of things and present them in the form of symbolic object. Walking through many of Shins’ installations one feels an uncanny sense of the museum or science laboratory. There is an innocent unintentionality in the work and it’s difficult to imagine the artist deliberately planning this beforehand. It is more the result of play and experimentation with a set of ideas.
The artist is universal in his outlook and this becomes obvious when engaging with his art. The ideas he is working with encompass a wide sphere of subject matter. Shin ranges through academic disciplines as diverse as archaeology, philosophy, science, (in particular botany, zoology and microbiology) and politics. He incorporates ideas about evolution, metaphysics, reincarnation, history and nature into his art. This holistic linking together of seemingly disparate subjects is executed with an exceedingly high degree of sophistication. One senses within the work a merging and melding of complex things, some rational and some conjured up from the deep ooze of creation. Together they reflect the substance of Shins sensibility as a man attempting to come to terms with the world and its mysteries.
There appears thus far to be five loose phases in the development of Shins work. Between 1979 and 1987 he engaged in work that attempted to illustrate concepts such as memory, habitation and fear. During this early period we can see immediately his preoccupation with concepts that are difficult to express in object form. He grapples with the importance of human society and human notions of identity and belonging through objects intended to evoke a sense of place or home. He does this all the while with a sensibility borne of his native Korean heritage. His use of materials is organic in nature and reflects his attachment to the land and mans use of land wherever human habitation is found. He attempts to understand the deep primal fear of primitive man and his relationship to his environment. There is a sense in his work that the artist has attempted to identify deeply with his subject. Although there is a feeling that the author is grappling with spiritual issues it doesn’t become truly apparent until a bit later in the second phase of his work.
Between 1987 and 1993 Shin began to explore spirituality, cemeteries, death and the Buddhist teaching of reincarnation. This work attempts to deal with issues that hold strong significance for the artist. By making work that tries to crystallize the essence of mortality and transcendence any artist reaches beyond the usual and mundane towards the unknown. Each work is infused with an aura speaking of things unutterable. During this time Shin was able to find a deeper context for his work which would underpin and enhance his attraction to the natural world. There is no contradiction for the artist in his work with the spiritual and natural; for him they are contiguous and at once synonymous with what life is all about. One installation titled ‘Neo Ice Age’ in particular evokes a future time in which the primitive returns and all trace of modern life has disappeared. The work seems to say, “all will pass away and nature will triumph over man inevitably”.
In 1993 Shin began a series of works that dealt with the origin of species and in particular plants and animals. This is a natural progression in the artists work as he became more intrigued by nature and its diversity. For five years Shin pursued his interest in the natural order with its incumbent mysteries. There is a sense that the artist was attempting to tease out the residual quality of plants by presenting them in a multitude of configurations both in 2D and 3D. ‘Plant Journal’ in particular was an ambitious long running project that laid bare the structure of what plants are. Plant forms appear in a multitude of fantastic configurations delineating an alien world and bringing it into the realm of familiarity. These works challenge our idea of what we thought we knew.
From 1999 to 2000 Shin engaged in an exploration of the Piscean order. Fish became his preoccupation as his interest shifted from land to sea. The strange world of fish held a strong fascination for and exerted a strong pull on the artist during this time. Throughout his practice Shin has incorporated into his work the concept of reincarnation and mythical notions to do with death and transcendence. The underwater world is given a weight of gravity heightening the sense of urgency surrounding the fate of the natural environment. Fish are portrayed as those illustrious, shadowy denizens of the deep needing help from above. There is a plea here for responsibility toward the earth and in particular the sea from whence all life is meant to have emerged. The message seems to be “in time everything will be re-born”.
At the end of 2000 Shin began to move in a different direction. Moving away from the sea, he shifted his focus again to land creatures like salamanders and in particular hooved animals such as deer and goats. From 2000 to the present he became involved in corporate commissions bringing his creatures into greater public awareness. Displayed prominently on construction site fences, inside and outside corporate buildings, in public recreational spaces and in art museums Shins creatures take on a larger than life presence. More than ever his work serves to remind us of the earth and its environments. When confronted by giant multi-hued salamanders and life-sized wooden deer and goats we are reminded of the destruction visited by man on the natural world. Having worked his way from plants to animals to fish and then back to animals Shin has completed a creative circuit and he has done this within the framework of his own personal mythology. Every artwork completes another chapter in Shins oeuvre and casts light on his creative intelligence. The nature/culture debate within art is a long and chequered one but Shin has masterfully brought the two sides of the divide together under the guise of “environmental co-habitation”.
William Boot
The world is a deeply mysterious place, at once rich with incredible diversity and yet swollen with the promise of life and death each and every moment. The cycles within nature unfold relentlessly like desperation borne from necessity. The processes that drive the forces around us always threaten to engulf and annihilate in order for the new to begin. The seesaw to and fro of weather and geological upheaval ensure the destruction of the old and the implementation of new regimes. The world heaves and groans like a cantankerous pregnant women at the brink of delivery. The drama of this recurrent birthing shakes the earth causing realities to collide and altering environments forever. We stand in awe at the power of nature to give life and to decimate it in an instant of time. From the cataclysm comes beauty and fecundity once again.
The human response to the natural environment has always been one of reverence and or resignation. The mystery of recurrent life cycles and rhythms in nature has shaped human societies from the beginning. The attitude of worship and devotion in the face of the unknown is a predictable response. What ties man so closely to the earth is birth and death. Fertility and the growth of new life are a miracle.
How does an artist respond to these overwhelming forces of life? There is essentially the choice to imitate or innovate with what can be seen. Artists respond to either the ideal or the real in their attempt to locate meaning for themselves. Shin Hyun Jung is a man who has chosen the more difficult path of immersing himself in the experience of others in order to make sense of things. He fashions an ideal vision from his experience of the real. Sallying forth on odyssey after odyssey he plunges himself into strange environments in order to lay bare their underlying essence. Like an adventurer of old he looks earnestly for that which is new or unknown. Not content to stay at home in the comfort of his studio he places himself rather at the mercy of the elements willingly. Through this process of movement through foreign environments there occurs a steady accretion of sensory data, which infuses and informs the works he creates. The real is transformed mysteriously by the ideal and leads us to new places of understanding.
Shin employs a wide range of materials in his quest to demonstrate the richness and diversity of natural structures. Seeking to entice the viewer into a dialogue with history or the natural elements he provokes the imagination with his individual treatment of space, colour and surface. In his attempt to stimulate consciousness he sets about placing his creations in odd configurations within a gallery or corporate space or an outdoor environment. Shin works tirelessly across most mediums bringing together photography, sculpture and painting into visually intriguing installations. There is a quality in his work of things both archaeological and scientific where an astute logic and deep sensitivity to the nature of things resides. There is a continual attempt made to tease out the deeper significance of things and present them in the form of symbolic object. Walking through many of Shins’ installations one feels an uncanny sense of the museum or science laboratory. There is an innocent unintentionality in the work and it’s difficult to imagine the artist deliberately planning this beforehand. It is more the result of play and experimentation with a set of ideas.
The artist is universal in his outlook and this becomes obvious when engaging with his art. The ideas he is working with encompass a wide sphere of subject matter. Shin ranges through academic disciplines as diverse as archaeology, philosophy, science, (in particular botany, zoology and microbiology) and politics. He incorporates ideas about evolution, metaphysics, reincarnation, history and nature into his art. This holistic linking together of seemingly disparate subjects is executed with an exceedingly high degree of sophistication. One senses within the work a merging and melding of complex things, some rational and some conjured up from the deep ooze of creation. Together they reflect the substance of Shins sensibility as a man attempting to come to terms with the world and its mysteries.
There appears thus far to be five loose phases in the development of Shins work. Between 1979 and 1987 he engaged in work that attempted to illustrate concepts such as memory, habitation and fear. During this early period we can see immediately his preoccupation with concepts that are difficult to express in object form. He grapples with the importance of human society and human notions of identity and belonging through objects intended to evoke a sense of place or home. He does this all the while with a sensibility borne of his native Korean heritage. His use of materials is organic in nature and reflects his attachment to the land and mans use of land wherever human habitation is found. He attempts to understand the deep primal fear of primitive man and his relationship to his environment. There is a sense in his work that the artist has attempted to identify deeply with his subject. Although there is a feeling that the author is grappling with spiritual issues it doesn’t become truly apparent until a bit later in the second phase of his work.
Between 1987 and 1993 Shin began to explore spirituality, cemeteries, death and the Buddhist teaching of reincarnation. This work attempts to deal with issues that hold strong significance for the artist. By making work that tries to crystallize the essence of mortality and transcendence any artist reaches beyond the usual and mundane towards the unknown. Each work is infused with an aura speaking of things unutterable. During this time Shin was able to find a deeper context for his work which would underpin and enhance his attraction to the natural world. There is no contradiction for the artist in his work with the spiritual and natural; for him they are contiguous and at once synonymous with what life is all about. One installation titled ‘Neo Ice Age’ in particular evokes a future time in which the primitive returns and all trace of modern life has disappeared. The work seems to say, “all will pass away and nature will triumph over man inevitably”.
In 1993 Shin began a series of works that dealt with the origin of species and in particular plants and animals. This is a natural progression in the artists work as he became more intrigued by nature and its diversity. For five years Shin pursued his interest in the natural order with its incumbent mysteries. There is a sense that the artist was attempting to tease out the residual quality of plants by presenting them in a multitude of configurations both in 2D and 3D. ‘Plant Journal’ in particular was an ambitious long running project that laid bare the structure of what plants are. Plant forms appear in a multitude of fantastic configurations delineating an alien world and bringing it into the realm of familiarity. These works challenge our idea of what we thought we knew.
From 1999 to 2000 Shin engaged in an exploration of the Piscean order. Fish became his preoccupation as his interest shifted from land to sea. The strange world of fish held a strong fascination for and exerted a strong pull on the artist during this time. Throughout his practice Shin has incorporated into his work the concept of reincarnation and mythical notions to do with death and transcendence. The underwater world is given a weight of gravity heightening the sense of urgency surrounding the fate of the natural environment. Fish are portrayed as those illustrious, shadowy denizens of the deep needing help from above. There is a plea here for responsibility toward the earth and in particular the sea from whence all life is meant to have emerged. The message seems to be “in time everything will be re-born”.
At the end of 2000 Shin began to move in a different direction. Moving away from the sea, he shifted his focus again to land creatures like salamanders and in particular hooved animals such as deer and goats. From 2000 to the present he became involved in corporate commissions bringing his creatures into greater public awareness. Displayed prominently on construction site fences, inside and outside corporate buildings, in public recreational spaces and in art museums Shins creatures take on a larger than life presence. More than ever his work serves to remind us of the earth and its environments. When confronted by giant multi-hued salamanders and life-sized wooden deer and goats we are reminded of the destruction visited by man on the natural world. Having worked his way from plants to animals to fish and then back to animals Shin has completed a creative circuit and he has done this within the framework of his own personal mythology. Every artwork completes another chapter in Shins oeuvre and casts light on his creative intelligence. The nature/culture debate within art is a long and chequered one but Shin has masterfully brought the two sides of the divide together under the guise of “environmental co-habitation”.
William Boot
