Shinhye You is a ceramic artist born(1993) in South Korea and currently based in London. Shinhye undertook an MA in Ceramics & Glass at the RCA in 2023 and is now continuing her career in East London.
Shinhye constructs fiction that follows the principles of magical realism and translates them into visual forms. Shinhye’s ceramic pieces become a part of the fictional stories written by her. Her pieces work as a bridge to invite people to the imaginary world. In her stories, Shinhye’s pieces represent the remnants of human lives that once existed. After the death of people, the pieces remain empty vessels, drawing the afterlife of once-existing humans.
Her current project focuses on fiction about a world where everybody bears stones after they pass away. Inspired by the fact that people often find crystalized stones from the cremated bodies of monks, she created a world where everyone will have a stone of their own after death. In her story, these stones will continue their lives as living beings, growing and moving. The ceramics that she makes are the visual forms of the so-called “living stones.” Through the written stories she describes the world in three ways. One way is to describe the life of the stone owners before death. Another way is to illustrate the behavior of the stones. The other way is to show how characters in the story react to this phenomenon.