ALONG RECONCILIATION WAY // SHIN-HEE CHIN AND 10 YEARS OF 108 | CONTEMPORARY by Cassidy Petrazzi
A process of reconciliation is central to the work and
Though void of human figures, they don’t feel remote or
practice of Shin-hee Chin. A fiber and mixed-media artist
uninhabitable. Rather the points of view generated in
born in Korea who has lived in the United States for over
these works put viewers at the center of nature. Pieces like
two decades, her work straddles and interrogates opposed
The Trees in Late Autumn, 2020, can make you feel like you
dualities: east and west, art and craft, female and male.
are stepping into the scene, enveloped by darkness with
Chin’s art practice has helped her work through these
brassy grass crunching underfoot as you move toward a
binaries productively to ultimately reconcile her with
cluster of skeletal, bare-limbed trees.
her world. This fall, Shin-hee Chin presents Entangled Harmony, a solo exhibition, at 108|Contemporary in Tulsa from October 6 to November 19.
body is always central to her work, whether depicted or not, as Chin’s technique recalls our cellular makeup, or the web
Chin works to generate, she says, a “proudly feminine
of the universe, both a tangled weave of interconnected
territory” that gives voice to female experiences that can
lines and mass. The woven planes and structures she
be felt by a wide audience. The threads and fiber of most
creates implicate the body in their forms and resulting
of her collaged works address the historical undervaluing
images. Looking for her place in the world, she engages
of women’s labor. The technique Chin employs, a layered
the audience in discovering its own place within nature
and laborious process of hand stitching, connects her
through a universal and visceral lens. A new work on view
creative process to the corporeal experience of birthing that recalls “the gradual forming of the fetus through the intersection of capillaries within the belly of the mother, or the silkworm’s patient and continuous spinning leading to the creation of its cocoon.” For Chin, this process of
at 108|Contemporary, Entangled Harmony, represents the “symbiotic relationship between nature and humankind,” Chin says, “symbolizing intimate dialogues and embracing the mysterious, restorative force of nature.”
obsessive weaving, linking, layering, and patterning is an
Embracing the Void, a woven sculptural work also visible
exploration and recovery of an ecstatic maternal condition
at 108, comprises 23 panels hung from the ceiling in
which dynamically creates life.
front of the windows that front Reconciliation Way, the
Some of Chin’s earlier works are explicit in their preoccupation with feminine experience. Woman’s Life, 2016, consists of a mixed-media collage box containing nine embroidery hoops that depict different stages of a woman’s life such as childhood, adolescence, and
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Chin reconciles her place within many different worlds. The
street outside the gallery. Originally hung from the limbs of trees, this current installation of the work will allow viewers to weave themselves through the panels and experience how light and air move through the crevices between threads.
middle age. More recent works focus on Chin’s place in
Shin-hee Chin’s exhibition represents the culmination
the Midwest, specifically the plains of Kansas where she
of 108|Contemporary’s 10th Anniversary year. The gallery,
currently lives and teaches at Tabor College in Hillsboro.
founded as the Brady Craft Alliance in 2009, was renamed
These fiber works present intricate portraits of natural
108|Contemporary in 2013 when it moved into the newly
settings, showing trees in winter, sprawling prairie, and
restored and renovated Mathews Warehouse. Already
expansive grasslands in a rainbow of layered, woven color.
dedicated to bringing craft artists to Tulsa with exhibitions
F E AT U R E
CONTINUED