Title of art	상황 812/Situation 812			Sector	Painting (회화)
Art specifications	71.2?59.3cm			Material technique	Oil on canvas
Collection year	2001			Production year	1981
Gallery	Seoul Museum of Art			Artist	Shin Hak-cheul
Description of art	“Situation 812” (1981) presents the human body, machinery, and products of industrial civilization by integrating them into an amorphous form. Starting from the bottom with human feet stepping on the ground, this mass is comprised of industrial products mass produced by today’s material civilization, including gas canisters, pills, tincans, and plastic vessels such as yogurt bottles, which are merged with grotesque animals and machine components, leading to the top, where human arms and chest are combined with a motorcycle. The labels of a Yamaha motorcycle on the top left and Squash Orange Juice at the center right are brand images of products borrowed to satirize the materialism of our mass consumption society. Shin described this sight, where various issues concurrently collide with eachother, as “reality itself.” Indeed, the phrase “人界” (“Human World”), which is written on the soap case lid, is a reminder of the fact that this scene represents the very reality of the human world. This kind of expression in which various icons are merged to create a singular form is also found in “Modern Korean History 1” (1980), Shin’s first historical painting series, which was released around the same time, as well as “Metamorphosis 5” (1981) and “Scorpion” (1981), which later became a core foundation of Shin’s work.
Address	61, Deoksugung-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul			Source	Seoul Metropolitan Government