HIGH AND DRY, Acrylic, oil on resin on aluminium, 120x180x15cm, 2009



IN A DAZE, Acrylic on resin on wooden board, 60x80x20cm, 2010



UNTITLED, Acrylic on resin on wooden board, 100x125x20cm, 2010





SEEING IS NOT BELIEVING, Aluminium, resin, 85x125cm, 2008

SOMNANBULIST, Aluminium, resin, 50x100cm, 2008

ARTIST STATEMENT
Right after my adolescence I became a 'theist' who no longer believes in God. I am not simply an atheist but a 'theist who threw away religion'. This is why religion was an indispensable part of my life. When I realized that religion was merely one of cultures created by the human being, I felt all values I had so far broke down. However, I was convinced of a new possibility even in vanity. That conviction is that man can distinguish personal situations from impersonal ones and that the two can coexist. Through this transformation of my thought I come to believe that it is possible to represent the situation in which God exists but religion no longer exist. This faith is truly influential in shaping my life. As a result, the world I look at becomes the one in which reality coexists with unreality. I reach out the idea that there exists a situation I feel and imagine without viewing it directly with my own eyes.

The images I represent are originally unreal but become visible through my work. Through a blend with a furniture structure or sometimes a plane surface, those images bring about a subtle effect that real space collides with unreal space. In a teahouse in 2006, I noticed the lower part of a table stained with traces of food and gum, in contrast with its well-arranged upper part. I then realized that two extremely heterogeneous spaces could coexist. Since then, I focused my intention on the lower part, which was probably of no use in real life and most roughly finished. What I notice is that our fears of something unknown is derived from the loss of our concern with its lower part (or its interior), which is mainly caused by our familiarity with the surface or exterior of furniture.

My current works are still reflecting my psychological response to the lower part but the shape is based on 2D structure. I’m trying to make each layers containing each imaginary codes, appeared in my work such as drooped legs, exploding unknown institutions and castrated or veiled bodies, on a plane surface. On this surface, imaginary codes are floating and sinking into the surface and trying to link each other invisibly. This reconstitution of manifestation still shows my psychological state about inner, veiled space straightly. The structure of my new works is not merely for conveying my thought and feeling but helping people understand and share my strange dream.

GUNWOO SHIN
Lives and works in London, UK

EDUCATION
1997~2003 BFA Sculpture, College of Fine Art, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
2004~2006 MFA Sculpture, College of Fine Art, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
2007~2009 MFA Sculpture, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, London, UK

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006 The 1st Solo Exhibition / Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, Korea

GROUP SHOWS
2009 Defamiliarization / Nolias gallery, London, UK
--------Crossfields / Korean Cultural Centre, London, UK
2008 The 38th parallel / G-spot show room, London, UK
--------4482 / Barge house, Oxo centre, London, UK
2006 EHS Project / Sejong Culture Centre, Seoul, Korea
2005 Surreally Real / Gallery Factory, Seoul, Korea
--------White & Black / Gallery Ant Square, Seoul, Korea
2004 Landscape of Taebaek / Coal Museum, Taebaek, Kangwon-do, Korea
--------Imagination relay in Club / Kwangju Biennale exhibition hall 5, Kwangju, Korea
2003 ‘NO War’ group Exhibition / Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
2002 The 11th Street Art Festival ‘a three-cornered relation’ / Hong-ik University, Seoul, Korea

AWARDS
2009 Land Securities Award

For More Images from exhibition 1

For WINDOW Exhibition 2011