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BY CRITICS

Jina Kim
Becoming - Difference between Repetition 2008 (ENG) / over.flow.ing 2008

Jina Kim

Becoming - Difference between Repetition

From over.flow.ing

Bukchon Art Museum, 2008


Sujin Shin is finishing up a piece of engraving work by printing multiple plates, one by one, engraved as grains, leaves, and petals. At one glance they look somewhat similar and repetitive, but each are symbolized by different colors, leaves, and petal modules according to what direction and with what thickness each plate meets together, like series works by Monet. In other words, Sujin Shin's patterns are repeated by 'difference.' Differences created by printing the same plate in various directions are repeatedly engraved on each canvas and paper. At first glance they look similar, but each of them takes on a different appearance when compared to the original print. "Only differences are repeated to come back." As Sujin Shin mentioned, this aesthetic of repetition and change reminds us of Deleuze. As Deleuze said, difference comes not from two static situations but from crossing and mixing those two. Her plate is repeatedly printed by crossing several plates at a time, adding delicate differences and giving birth to a new engraving that demonstrates the aesthetics of 'repetition' and 'difference'.

Sujin Shin's works are not 'repetition without differences,' the aesthetic most pursued by slick digital media. They are not in the business of distributing mass produced images and ideas, as Benjamin once emphasized. They are far from the repetitive style criticized by postmodernism which pursues to dismantle the original copy, or 'discourse of the copy.' While insisting the aesthetic of repetition and copy is a unique mechanism of engraving rather than painting, she puts a plate of various colors and prints it from different angles dozens of times, to create a new work. So the finished work is different from others. It is not the artist’s intention to damage the original copy or its unique character, nor is it an exact copy, but rather an attempt to clearly show that the base of 'becoming' and 'creation' only comes from 'repetition' and 'difference.'

She is making and printing plates with earnest movements to create endless differences. With a technique employing dry point and etching, she prints the plate a dozen times, elaborately engraving each grain on her own. The large blue piece currently being exhibited was reportedly made by printing one plate more than a hundred times. Engravings have been said to be the secondary part of modern art. Its initial purpose was distribution and because the artists’ hands do not touch the work directly, as they would a painting, engraving is treated as a skill rather than an art form. But her work, while embodying the skills and mastership that engraving requires, makes us feel the force of her 'hands' a skill that's been maturing for far longer than any other painting generated these days.   

About 10 years ago when she was a graduate student at Seoul National University, she was always seen working at studio whenever I'd pass by the graduate school building. In a doctoral program for the last 2-3 years, she again settled in the studio of Seoul National University cultivating her own garden. Personally, I saw her as trustworthy and pleasant and was always seen strolling by the College of Fine Arts. Unlike those who weregushing of romance, freedom, and emotions, she was seen as an exemplar artist. However, I think her sincerity and surprising concentration became the momentum which supports her work today. She's been drilling, adopting, and developing her engraving skills day after day through faith not flattery. Although it might not seem an outstanding feat for a non-expert, her sincere, in-depth, delicate and instinctive observations of common figures such as one grain and one leaf, is the very secret to displaying beautiful works that fulfill the density of the paper with various bright, bubbly and complex colors. Sujin Shin does not exude a modernist attitude nor does she stop investigating about specificity and quality of medium. Rather, she pursues a fresh aesthetic while continuing to use modern engraving characters observed through nature, life and art.

While Sujin Shin's zest of hand and unique outcomes are strange compared with traditional works, she approaches this exhibition with more painting-like engravings. First of all, the density of color is far thicker than before. Compared with last year's exhibition, this year's work feels more like water-paintings of open landscapes such as green grass, blue seas, blossoms burning, and extinguished flames rather than geometric figures like circles and ovals. Clear geometric figures dominated last year's exhibition, but this year’s more free and emotional figures fill the exhibition center. Meanwhile, the different kinds of engravings are expanded. The stencil work decorating the walls of the gallery uses all 3 sides of the corner to climb like a flower tree or a flame, displaying a new combination between wall-painting and engraving. The indigo-purple colored pieces that are naturally hanging are an experiment with a more painting-like touch. Although the same method was used with the pieces on canvas, plates were printed on silk for these works and then hung on the wall as they are, exactly showing how figures can be differently shown according to the texture of the paper.

There is no need to mention Deleuze to say that her paintings are more natural than geometric. Seeing photos taken by her of leaves, petals, and sea, we get to know that geometric figures came from specific appearances in nature. The basic module and overall layout are very simple but infinitely complex at the same time. One motive is numerously repeated and accumulated to form a regular shape yet is irregular like the touch of a tough impressionists' brush. Sometimes, they look like a huge group of stars, or petals and grasses scattered away. Her engravings beautifully stand there as 'numerous' appearances of a new surface, operating not according to physical size but by the scale of the observers.




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