Heji Shin's Reclining Nude Pigs
at Zwirner's 52 Walker
'I don't really live in a headspace where I have to gauge the public perception of a subject before I allow myself to be genuinely interested,' explains German photographer Heji Shin.
Judging by her latest run of projects, that's probably for the best. In recent years, Shin has exhibited photographs of controversial rapper Kayne West, babies being born, and couples engaged in sex acts for an ad campaign for American fashion label Eckhaus Latta.
In her exhibition at David Zwirner's 52 Walker gallery, THE BIG NUDES (22 July–8 October 2023), however, Shin takes a more subtle, sideways approach to the full frontal.
Humorous photographs recast Helmut Newton's 'Big Nudes' (1980–9) series of semi-clad fashion models with fleshy pink pigs and MRI scans of Shin's brain. What could be more revealing?
Speaking with Ocula Advisory, Heji Shin discusses her curiosity about photographing the 'unexplored realm' of the brain, the German photographers that inform her practice, and why scuba diving could be next on her agenda.
This exhibition takes its name from Helmut Newton's 1980s series 'Big Nudes'. What inspired you about that show?
The reference to Helmut Newton's 'Big Nudes' (1980-9) series came after I had photographed the pigs and scanned the brains. I liked the title in relation to what the photographs were turning into.
It does work in the sense that technically the show contains nude subjects presented in a way that makes them seem large. And the nude is an art historical genre that is usually a warrior or a woman not wearing clothes. I'm proposing an expanded definition here.
In a conversation you had with the artist Jordan Wolfson for Interview Magazine ahead of this show, you mentioned that you wanted to do a head scan of Mike Tyson. Why?
Mike Tyson seems like he would have an interesting brain and I was curious to see what it looks like. It's a whole different set of parameters when you think of photographing someone that way—an unexplored realm—because we only really know people by their outward appearance, which is superficial and probably a product of men ruling over the art world for so long. As a woman, I want to use my voice to go deeper.
Like Kayne West, who you photographed for your Kunsthalle Zurich (2019) show, Tyson is a controversial figure. You've said you like taking risks with your subject matter. Why?
Unless it's something that has such hot, intense controversy attached to it that completely sucks the oxygen out of the room, I don't really live in a headspace where I have to gauge the public perception of a subject before I allow myself to be genuinely interested. I feel like if I did that it would be difficult to make work that I liked personally.
THE BIG NUDES comprises two discrete bodies of work—brain scans and pig portraits. This is common in your shows—the Whitney Biennial featured your Kanye West portraits alongside your 'Baby' series (2016), and a similar approach taken at Kunsthalle Zurich. What appeals to you about bringing together such distinct bodies of works?
The Kanye West portraits and 'Baby' series were actually two separate bodies of works completed in different times that I decided to juxtapose with a very specific curatorial intent.
Back then the curators of the Whitney Biennial did not want to show them together. The portraits of Kanye ended up in the basement between the bathrooms and the wardrobe, whereas the babies were officially part of the Biennial.
Whereas, the pig portraits and brain scans in THE BIG NUDES are meant to be read together. Each time this has happened, it's a series I worked on simultaneously in the months leading up to the exhibition, and to that extent I think they are related genetically.
Like Newton and other German photographers such as Wolfgang Tillmans and Juergen Teller, your work straddles the line between art and fashion. As a photographer from Germany, what influence have these figures had on your practice?
No doubt a pretty huge influence. Juergen Teller is as good as ever today, both in an art and in a fashion context.
As for Wolfgang Tillmans, he is a friend and I admire the fact that his work has really transcended the possibilities of photography itself and become something more spiritual and immaterial. His musical project 'Fragile' is something people should check out; it's completely underrated, especially the song 'me naive'.
What have you got in mind for your next project?
I've been looking into taking scuba diving lessons as I'd like to explore the incredible flora and fauna under the sea like my fourth favourite German photographer, Leni Riefenstahl.
Main image: Heji Shin, Reclining Nude (2023). Inkjet print on paper. 185.4 x 139.1 cm. Framed: 200.7 x 153.7 x 5.4 cm. Edition 1 of 3, 2 AP. © Heji Shin. Courtesy the artist and 52 Walker, New York
96.5 x 71 cm Galerie Buchholz
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96.5 x 71 cm Galerie Buchholz
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59 x 79.5 cm Galerie Buchholz
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