Chicago, IL
What makes millennials comfortable? Since I haven’t got a clue, I’ve watched two experimental videos by Eunhye Shin that offer partial answers to the question. “Make Yourself Comfortable” poses its titular query to four Berlin-based artists, while “Molka (hidden camera)” sets up a secret camera in a women’s bathroom stall. Bits of narrative appear on the screen here and there: the Berliners talk about their language issues and about living away from home for the first time, the women do or don’t use the toilet. (Maybe they knew about the camera? Two of them seem to be looking for it.) The true source of millennial comfort exists elsewhere, however, in the formal devices Shin employs. The Berliners get fragmented into biomorphic shapes, disappearing into a perfect blue screen. The women get pixelated on the opposite half of a split display, dissolving into rectangles of neutral color. Being bits of people never looked so comforting.
—Lori Waxman 2020-02-01 8:49 PM