신해옥 シン・ヘオク Shin Haeok 
이음말 渡り言葉 Catchword

신동혁 シン・ドンヒョク Shin Donghyeok
12색 선언문 12色宣言文 12 COLORS MANIFESTO

2025. 4. 1. – 4. 22. Ao-Hata Bookstore, Fukuoka
2025. 4. 4. – 5. 11. ASAHISO NOMA, Osaka

Since 2014, Shin Haeok and Shin Donghyeok have collaboratively lead the graphic design studio Shin Shin, continuously experimenting with the possibilities of design as a mode of thinking. This exhibition unfolds their individual inquiries into books and posters, intersecting their mediums to explore how their collaborative practice under the name Shin Shin converges with their distinct artistic trajectories.

Their work stems from personal experiences. Shin Haeok recalls childhood memories of playing with books alongside her sibling, stacking them into bridges, while Shin Donghyeok reflects on his first encounter with the poster medium and the moment he created one himself. These memories mark their initial sensory engagements with books and posters, shaping how the two mediums are arranged within the exhibition space. In this exhibition, Shin Donghyeok’s posters are installed along walls and columns, while Shin Haeok’s books rest on the floor or are held in the hands of readers, extending into reading performances that occupy the space in fluid yet distinct currents. As books are read and posters are seen, as records take form and prints are impressed, as fixed structures meet dynamic interpretations—the two mediums reflect and expand upon one another, generating movements that unfold in resonance.

Shin Haeok weaves moments where text and image, page and space intersect within the structure of a book, exploring the relationships that flow through them. Her design methodology, which involves collecting and rearranging what is read and seen, originates from contemplating how objects and concepts, visual and language, intertwine through the medium of the book. Shin Haeok’s Catchword—a composition of reading performances, installations, and books—begins with an adaptation of the English first edition of John Locke’s A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books (1706). In this work, Locke proposed systematic methods for collecting and organizing concepts and information, investigating how knowledge can be remembered and utilized. Shin adopts the original’s methodology of collection as material for imitation and interpretation, translating and rewriting it in her own way. Additionally, she gathers and inscribes new heads, using them as cues for reading and movement. The blank pages that follow are left as spaces for future records, inviting new entries to be made.

Shin Donghyeok explores the history, styles, conventions, and origins of design while experimenting with the materiality and physical conditions of traditional design artifacts. In this exhibition, he focuses on the poster as one of the oldest mediums for conveying visual information. Through his poster installation series, 12 COLORS MANIFESTO, Shin revisits the evolution of printing technology, the origins of the poster, and the echoes of historical slogans and poster-making education in Korean society, contemplating the future manifestations of posters. By assigning distinct three-dimensional characteristics to 12 colors based on the fundamental palette of poster colors, he proposes specific physical conditions under which posters operate.

Text: Miji Lee

Single-channel video, color, sound, 31 min. 14 sec.

Performed by Shin Haeok
Translated by Goto Tetsuya 後藤哲也
Filmed and edited by Ikhyun Ghim
Thanks to Kawasaki Yuhei 川﨑 雄平 and Goto Tetsuya 後藤哲也
Supported by ASAHISO NOMA and Ao-Hata Bookstore