Interpretation of Memory. Fragments of Life Blooming on Canvas

Hong Gyeonghan (artcritic)

A man with a blank expression stands in a near-empty screen. A girl with bobbed hair glimpses beyond the canvas. Happenings between man and woman, their meeting and parting and all the subtle strands of emotions in between, are captured by the artist in his unique view of the world reminiscent of children's books. Another series of works by Shin Cheol transpose fragments of fading memories into streamlined images. The artist's canvas depicts a lonesome glow in people, so commonly found among city dwellers, outlining characters whose placid, casual faces betray the vividly colorful emotions behind. The characters lend themselves as self-portraits of our own reflections.

The works of artist Shin Cheol harbours warmth that are lonesome. Childhood memories we all share in our own light - memories of affection, separation, solitude and longing - softly blankets his works with fragrant emotions. Simplicity, touch of humor, and warm feelings characterize those emotions, but sometimes hints of sympathy glimpses through. Shin Cheol's sustained series in the theme of <Interpretation of Memory> continue his lyrics that gently sing to our deeper human aspects and the indescribable solitude that entwine our lives.

Shin Cheol's recent works sing his lyrics in a more lucid tune, with more simpler forms encasing deeper colors and contents promised within. By all means, the artist's use of forms has become more simplified and his narrative speaks less. Whereas his subjects remain unchanged from scenes of nature and people within it, his artistic symbols now embrace only the essentials of those people's cherished memories and sits ever more calm on the canvas. This development hints that the artist has matured further in his artistic expression, and that he has ultimately succeeded in leaving behind the surplus symbolism that trailed his song in discord for a long time.

From another perspective, we may perceive that the works of Shin Cheol spring from the boundary between design and abstraction. This is an important hint in understanding the artist's works: where his previous works would build concrete forms using relatively "decorative" mechanisms and then used individual symbols to relay the artist's images, his recent works reveal that his previous methods stop where primitive forms begin to take shape. This phenomenon highlights the artist's efforts, since his first exhibition in 1986, to endlessly research for the primordial ignition point of creation through numerous trials and errors.

Shin Cheol's recent works refuse to be dull even with its less narrative and simpler form; it has acquired its own aura that encompasses narration. The message is internalized in the aura, without needing intervention from designed communication. This implies that the artist's messages are reaching new horizons, and that the artist is on the path of contemplating the fundamental question about life itself, with firm roots to support himself planted in the routine dailiness of the present.

Interestingly, Shin Cheol's artistic prowess that touches and moves onlookers' hearts grows ever stronger with passage of time. Generally, it's regarded difficult to maintain one's ideology consistently over an extended period, as one's ego becomes fixated and one's ideas on worldly materials and beliefs grow stern and unyielding. Shin Cheol's works, on the contrary, build up on the artist's pure sensitivity ever further. Another way to describe the phenomenon is to compare it with the aesthetics of modern art, the goal of which is to fill up by emptying.