Invites: Shinuk Suh

Zabludowicz Collection is pleased to present an Invites exhibition by London-based Korean artist Shinuk Suh. Working across kinetic technologies, textile and steel industrial structures, Suh has transformed the galley into a factory.

The installation portrays a production setting in which a narrative unfolds across a series of sculptural works. Combining satire and manufacture, Suh deconstructs the interconnectedness of human and machine. Through exquisite assembly and the reappropriation of industrial motors, the artist’s highlyrealistic factory is riddled with awkward incompetence as bodiless figures slide and flop across it.

The staged production line churns out socialised human beings. Here they are represented by a sole hooded figure. Building on his previous works in which the body was represented using silicone, a substance very similar to human skin, Suh has expanded the manufacturing process to include bespoke apparel. The hooded body is seen splayed out against the exhibition space wall – in a cartoon character’s comic, yet failed, attempt to crash through a solid wall. The figure then appears on the ground under a motorised silicon hand that pushes and pulls it across the floor. Finally, the hoodie is attached to a slowly rotating metal pole, eventually becoming completely intertwined with it.

For Suh, the figure is a factory-produced object, with the factory acting as a metaphor for today’s societal structures. The machines make the character behave and act in a certain way, as a critique of the oppressive nature of contemporary social institutions. Together, the works employ story, humour and the absurd to navigate the comedic tragedy of modern life.

Shinuk Suh (b. 1988, Seoul, South Korea) received an MFA in sculpture from Slade School of Fine Art and a Fine Arts BA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include PLAYTHINGS, The Foundry, Seoul (2022); Post-Human Syndrome, BEERS London, London (2021); Rendered Reality, Korean Cultural Centre UK, London (2020); Man(u)fractured, Unit1 Gallery | Workshop, London (2019); Insignificant Tension, Daniel Benjamin Gallery, London (2019). Select group exhibitions include Peach Fuzz, The Factory Project, London (2021); Hi, How Are You?, Cerquone Gallery, Madrid; FBA Futures 2020, Mall Galleries, London (2020); La Totale 2020, Studio Orta, Les Moulins (2020). Suh currently lives and works between Seoul and London.