ID :
58090
Wed, 04/29/2009 - 08:54
Auther :

Yonhap Interview) Korean-American artist searches for deeper meaning in ordinary objects

((ATTN: photos available)
By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- Artist Jean Shin is no Damien Hirst. Not for her the
diamond-encrusted skulls, dead sharks or other such outlandish accoutrements of
the art world.

The 37-year old Korean-American artist rather has made her name through striking
use of castoffs and flotsam that poignantly convey aspects of the self and
community in everyday life.
"I am inspired by the everyday -- looking at the objects in our lives and
re-imagining the potential of these objects to reflect our identities, past and
present," Shin said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.
"I'm inspired by thinking about an idea that relates to a site or a community and
then selecting an object to work with that best reflects these ideas."
Already a nationally recognized artist in the United States for her monumental
installations that transform castoff materials into expressions of the community,
the 37-year-old Korean-American artist will hold a solo exhibition at the
Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington from May 1 through July 26.
The exhibition, "Jean Shin: Common Threads," features eight works Shin created
since 2000, including the new site-specific installation "Everyday Monuments"
commissioned by the museum.
Consisting of nearly 2,000 trophies donated by Washington D.C.-area residents,
the sprawling installation venerates the accomplishments of ordinary Americans --
stay-at-home moms, waitresses, janitors and postal carriers -- whose everyday
labors may go unrecognized.
"We planned this exhibition in July 2007," said Shin. "For this project, we began
collecting trophies last fall and winter of 2008."
Shin transformed each figurine to represent these tasks. The trophies are
arranged according to a scale plan of the National Mall, symbolically filling the
expanse of Washington's signature public space.
"I want viewers to pause, take notice of the familiar objects that we often
overlook and consider them as metaphors to larger issues in our society," the
artist said. "The viewers complete the meaning of my work. My work allows me to
connect to a large audience of potential participants, to engage in informal
collaborations and share conversations about our lives."
Other installations also reflect the diversity of minimal materials and larger
meanings Shin has delved for the last decade: "Chemical Balance III" is a
towering arrangement of empty prescription pill bottles that speaks to American's
dependency on prescription medications, and "Chance City" is a towering cityscape
of scratch-and-win lottery tickets, whose inevitable collapse serves as a
metaphor for the illusory promise of fast money.
Born in Seoul in 1971, Shin immigrated to the United States with her family at
the age of six. Her ethnic background and gender define a large proportion of her
art, Shin said.
"Being labeled and discriminated (against) as a woman, Korean-American or
anything else can be very frustrating and difficult especially when emerging as a
young artist trying to find a distinctive artistic voice of my own," she said.
"There is both vulnerability and strength in making art that reflects the
complexities of who I really am."
Having dreams to become an artist as a child, Shin received her B.F.A. in
painting in 1994 and went on to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York to get
a master's degree in art history and criticism. She then took a day job at the
Whitney Museum as a curatorial assistant.
"Deciding to make art for a living takes a lot of dedication, determination, hard
work, and luck helps, too," she said. "At the end, I could not imagine doing
anything else in my life that was as rewarding and make me happy."
As an artist who has received numerous awards, including New York Foundation for
the Arts Fellowship Awards, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and the Louis
Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Art Award, Shin said she was inspired by so
many artists giving her "permission to build on the history of art" that
proceeded her. In particular, she mentioned Eva Hess, Louise Bourgeois and Louise
Nevelson.
Shin has several other projects lined up this year.
She will be participating in a public art project in Queens for New York City's
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Art for Transit -- an outdoor mosaic made
out of Korean celadon ceramic fragments -- this spring and a solo show at
Frederieke Taylor Gallery in New York.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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