by JAMES S. KIM | @james_s_kim
editor@charactermedia.com
In this age of new media, we are surrounded by so many phenomena that all vie for our attention. Korean artist Ho Yoon Shin’s beautiful handcrafted paper sculptures embody a wide range of influences, including religion, politics and social surroundings in South Korea. However, Shin’s work literally shows a different angle to these phenomena: They are empty.
“I am interested in social phenomena and approached the essence of it,” Shin says in his profile on LWH Gallery. “I realized that the closer I approached it I realized there is no essence. I think it is already intrinsic in me or you, being judged and evaluated by the inherent values in our things.
“Therefore, if examined in that viewpoint, I begin to understand why the power group of Korea has wanted to split all kinds of social systems — the right and the left, social classes divided on its economic structure, dominance and subordination, etc.”
Shin’s work also includes strong Buddhist influences. The simplicity of his subject’s faces are inspired by Buddhist art, which he finds calming and meditative, while the Buddhist philosophies of void and emptiness are also embodied in the sculptures.
“Looking at a solid body made up through several layers…, we get to know that the system of the body is organized rather dangerously than strangely, and the system looks like the contemporary society,” Shin says. “And its vacant surface and inside are getting filled with our inherent images to completion. In the end, it’s a story about the situation and a point where we fill a surface that doesn’t exist … and console and satisfy ourselves.”
Photos courtesy of Rocket News and Beautiful Decay
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