Composed of five episodes, Brine Lake (A New Body) by Shen Xin is set in a fictional factory where iodine is produced as a byproduct of natural gas sourced from deep sea brine lakes. Korean, Japanese, and Russian are spoken in multiple episodes. The protagonists have multiple encounters and conversations with two unseen employees of the factory whose visions are overtaken by the camera. The contexts of their interactions reveal the complexity of Korean immigrants’ experience in Russia and Japan, within which statelessness is potent. The multiple negotiations around the need for iodine and its versatile properties metaphorically speak to potentials for transnational identities. The research process of making this work deeply involved translating history and fiction into an emotive language.
Shen Xin’s practice examines how emotion, judgment, and ethics are produced and articulated through individual and collective subjects. Her films, video installations, and performances often focus on complex interpersonal and political narratives that offer opportunities for reflection and the destabilization of hegemonic power structure. Shen’s work addresses personal attractions and affections, also serving to evoke political inquiry. Her practice foregrounds the disjuncture between the rhythm of bodily desire and the automated rhythms of contemporary capitalism, seeing in this rupture the possibility of capitalist disintegration, allowing people to revert to simpler living and closer spiritual networks. Her work often invokes Buddhist references, such as references to the five Aggregates (matter, sensation, perception, volition and consciousness). With a queer world view, Shen’s work is deeply rooted in literary and poetic explorations. She invests a considerable amount of time researching her subject matter before writing the scripts of almost all of her films and performances. Her thinking and practice navigate through the predicaments and pitfalls of Western modernity, through the critical lens of her own cultural background.
