Ehrlich Steinberg is pleased to present Signatures, a solo presentation by LA-based artist TJ Shin for Parloir in Tournai, Belgium, taking place September 26 - 29 2024. The presentation includes a new series of sculpture, photography and drawing in which Shin considers spatial forms of time in relation to the intelligibility of images, the distribution of information and the historical significance of Cold War paranoia. Considering Belgium’s particular context as the headquarters of NATO since 1967, the series explores notions of anxiety and strategy which characterize geopolitical planning across allied and opposing nation states.

In Pocket watches (United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovenia, Turkey, Portugal, United Kingdom), a series of thirteen pocket watches have been altered by Shin to act as pin-hole cameras with unexposed film placed inside. The work references the final scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 satiric war film Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in which a spy-camera pocket watch is shown taking a secret picture. Here, the thirteen watches represent the thirteen NATO countries the artist has visited, each set to their corresponding time zones.

The sculpture Pinholes (Belgium, United States) includes two negative film images developed by the artist from two of the pin-hole camera pocket watches projected onto miniature slide monitors. In contrast to the film within each pocket watch which sits in a permanent state of un-exposure, these images have been fully realized. As a pair, the work is suggestive of eyes, further referencing ideas of paranoia, spying and perception.

Shin’s drawing Signature/Event/Context shows a printed and hand-drawn geometric sequence on a grid. It forms a map and pattern of visual analogies—tactical formations, sound waves, binary codes and ornamental wallpaper. The drawing follows the logic of shadowgraphs that visualize the flow or disturbance in the atmosphere, including differences in shock wave, intensity and pressure, that cannot be seen by the human eye or imaged by cameras.

In this new body of work, Shin considers how the endless exchange and hoarding of information relates to and propels modes of political and state-based power. The series continues the artist’s examination of historic, visual and symbolic patterning, and the spatialization, obsessiveness and mania of the image.

TJ Shin (b. 1993; Seoul, KR) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Shin received their BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2015 and their MFA in New Genres from UCLA in 2024. Shin has exhibited at the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Queens Museum, Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Arts, Princeton University, Montclair State University Galleries, Doosan Gallery, Knockdown Center, and more. Their writing has been published in Artforum, Active Cultures, the Brooklyn Rail, Mousse Magazine, and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. They have been invited as artist-in-residence at Princeton University, Indiana University, University at Buffalo, Recess, Wave Hill, Folly Tree Arboretum, Banff Centre, and more. Their works have been reviewed in publications including Artforum, Art in America, ArtPapers, ArtAsiaPacific, C Magazine and The New York Times.

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Parloir is a contemporary art event within a 1930s town house in Tournai, Belgium. Ten galleries will present a selection of artists from their program.

Participating galleries:
- Brunette Coleman (London)
- Ehrlich Steinberg (Los Angeles)
- Fanta (Milan)
- Gauli Zitter (Brussels)
- Hot Wheels (London/Athens)
- Misako & Rosen (Tokyo)
- Triangolo (Cremona)
- Sweetwater (Berlin)
- Kin (Brussels)
- Zero… (Milan)


Installation view. Signatures by TJ Shin, 2024. Photo: Philip Poppek.


TJ Shin, Pocket watches (United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovenia, Turkey, Portugal, United Kingdom), 2024. USSR pocket watches, film, brass and acrylic display stands, dimensions variable; 6 x 4.25 x 4.25 in. (15.2 x 10.8 x 10.8 cm) each. Photo: Philip Poppek.


TJ Shin, Pinholes (Belgium, United States), 2024. Slide viewers, negative film, mounted slides, dimensions variable; 2.75 x 3.25 x 4.75 in. (7 x 8.3 x 12 cm) eachPhoto: Philip Poppek.


TJ Shin, Signature/Event/Context, 2024. Pencil and ink on Japanese paper, linen, 72 x 30 in. (183 x 76 cm). Photo: Philip Poppek.


Detail. TJ Shin, Signature/Event/Context, 2024. Pencil and ink on Japanese paper, linen, 72 x 30 in. (183 x 76 cm). Photo: Evan Walsh.


External view. Parloir, 2024.