Shinuk Suh’s Man(u)fractured at Unit 1

Updated: Jan 8

After three months of intensive work, Shinuk Suh - the latest Artist in Residence of Unit 1|Workshop- presents his new body of work, called Man(u)fractured.

As an exception for gallery’s history, the artist’s large-scale work will be displayed in the main gallery, mainly because of its size and also due to its outstanding merit and integrity. Man(u)fractured, as part of Shinuk Suh’s Solo Residency Show, has universal depth of subject as well as a remarkably timely reflection on our inability to unlock from the systems we have invented and escape their tragic-comic imprisonment. 

As the artist himself has previously stated, “My work begins with examining the ideology that my family, church, school and the army (the state apparatus) in South Korea infused into me. I felt a sense of deprivation in feeling the difference between my character and the ideological human image imposed on me. I seemed like a person who had fallen out of society. This ongoing sense of deviation often makes me flee from reality. By analysing myself voluntarily, I could get a view point from which I can see the situation on a macroscopic level.

Furthermore, I wanted to express the ironies created by the ideology and the time period of those who have been contemporary with me in a visual language as an artist. For me, visual expression is a multidimensional area, and it is an infinite space within which I can express many repressed emotions. I realised that the humorous and exaggerated behaviours expressed in the animated movies that I encountered in my childhood are extremely relatable to adult human behaviour, and so not just cartoon fiction. I have related many of these exaggerated behaviours to my own situation, and then expressed them in my work.

In reality, the cruel and tragic scenes in animation, which in life we wouldn’t find amusing, become a comic factor that induces audience laughter. Comedy in animation has a limited laugh allowed within it. However, if these same dark situations are seen in reality, they turn into a definite tragedy. Why am I accepting the misfortunes of others and finding them comic in animation? And why does the comedy become a tragedy in reality? I have not found the answer. These questions are key points that I am exploring in my practice.”


The artists they have supported include, Jelena Bulajic, the youngest artist in Charles Saatchi’s collection, Harrison Pearce, artist and lecturer with a Masters in Philosophy and Fine Art, Thomas Langley, Royal Academy of Arts, as well as established artists with worldwide reputation such as the Chapman Borthers, Jimmy Cauty, Alice Anderson, Mike Osterhout, Philippe Vanderberg, Jeff McMillan, Gavin Turk, Cedric Christie and Pascal Rousson.

Exhibition Dates: 29 November 2019 - 18 January 2020

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