Mizin Shin, “Feedback Loop”, March 23-May 5, 2018

Exhibition Catalog, Chuck Tingley and Mizin Shin

Feedback Loop is an extension of Mizin Shin’s meticulous research regarding economic and industrial ecologies based in the manufacturing and distribution of consumable products. In Small World Network Model Vol. I, the lines and circles of her work represent the connections and interdependency of a large, and continually increasing, number of social entities constructing our individual networks. The screenprint installation is the result of an intuitive, mind-mapping process that seeks to distill dynamic and multi-directional relationships into a measured and repeatable graphic system. The installation simultaneously highlights the vacant spaces within our networks, as well as the beauty made possible by those spaces.

Subtlenet, an installation of relief prints and vinyl cut-outs adhered to surfaces across the gallery space, portrays the functional network of the production, distribution, and consumption systems found throughout the lifespan of a classic fast food staple: the French fry. Shin once again reduces a complicated process into a subtle schematic and stretches it across the gallery wall. The forms are white on white, causing them to be only barely detectable on the wall; to read the images, the viewer must engage the work actively, moving in closely so the reflections make the forms visible. Shin draws the viewer not only into the ecosystem represented in the schematic, but into the active ecosystem of the gallery itself. By carefully revealing the intrinsic connections among familiar objects, Shin’s work presents a view in which all parts are significant. Surrounded by the work, viewers become a focal point in the network models, drawing awareness to their own position as well as their own significance in these systems.

Born and raised in South Korea, Mizin Shin graduated from Hong-ik University with a BFA in Printmaking and received her MFA from University at Buffalo in 2017. Shin has been showing her work regionally and at institutions across the United States, and has been the recipient of the 2017 Graduate Student Fellowship from the Southern Graphics Council International, as well as the Juror’s Award at Brand 45 Works on Paper, 45th Annual National Exhibition of Works on Paper. Shin has exhibited widely across Western New York, including a solo exhibit with CEPA Gallery, and was included in the Burchfield Penney Art in Craft Media exhibit of 2018.