Title: Reflections on a Modern World (Solo Exhibition)

Date: 2023. 12.26~ 2024.01.21

Location: A Single Piece (403 Bourke St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, Australia)

Alive with color and movement, the work of Jaeyoun Shin (b. 1987) reflects the often chaotic modern world we live in. A world that may appear beautiful and dreamy on the surface but hides a deeper, more complex, hopeful, bountiful, scary and sometimes troubling world beneath.

Rich in symbolism, the work reflects Shin’s own experiences as well as those of the world at large, causing us to pause and consider our own world view. Can we see beyond the surface or are we blinded by the beauty?

The work, Ecstasy IX, is the final work in Shin’s Ecstasy series and depicts a “mind landscape,” and the many interconnected stories and experiences that lie within each of us as we strive towards our goals. Our memories, emotions, thoughts and fears. In this day and age, where busy is worn as a badge of honour, this is a timely reminder of the many different layers that exist in the world in which we live.

“Ecstasy IX depicts a place where illusory beauty and danger coexist. Unfolding with bright colours, the work at first appears vibrant, beautiful. But there is a threatening presence lurking in the air, behind all of that beauty there is a nothingness.”

“The work shows the coexistence of the beautiful and the dangerous in our world. Whatever dream we are chasing we cannot become blind to this duality otherwise we may become waylaid, diverted from our path, our dreams. This is something I have experienced personally and so I wanted my works to speak to people of that. To remind them of this fact, this reality of the current world in which we live. It is not all negative, we just need to be careful.

The interior of the A.SINGLE.PIECE gallery space is filled with silk fabric onto which Shin’s artwork has been printed. Billowing softly as they shift the light and shadow, these fabrics create a way for the visitor to physically enter the world of Jaeyoun Shin’s artwork, to pause for a moment and reflect upon the way they see the world around them and consider their own place within it.