My regular readers will know that I’ve written many articles on the concept of artistic recycling in the past.  It’s one of those ideas that seems to get stuck in my head and come back with such frequency that it seems to have turned into a series here on Triond.  There are many, many wonderful artists exploring the world of upcycling and this article will feature the works of one of these artists, Jean Shin.

Jean Shin is an artist who has worked in many mediums — including sculptures, video, and site specific installations.  The one thing thread that runs through all of her work is the process of transformation of ordinary, socially cast-off pieces of life into beautiful pieces of art that explore boundaries, both cultural and societal.  She has work displayed in many places including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Brooklyn Museum, Cincinnati Center for Contemporary Art, Fabric Workshop and Museum, and many, many other locations.  Her work is also critically acclaimed and has received many awards.

Ms. Shin lives and works in New York City but was born in Seoul, South Korea.  She brings these ideas of cultural and societal issues into her art work.  She says on her site: “my work speaks of the optimism inherent in giving new form to life’s leftovers…I seek to recall an object’s past, as well as suggest its greater connection to our collective memories, desires and failures.”

She takes life’s forgotten, used and cast off articles and uses them in groups to create astounding pieces that speak of what has been and what is yet to be.  Each item is imprinted with it’s former use or former user.  Together, they create a portrait of communities and individuals.  The view switches back between one and many throughout Ms. Shin’s work which keeps the viewer interested, intrigued and amazed.  These viewers then in turn, create their own community of people interacting with each piece.  In this way, these items of “garbage”, of mass consumerism become a part of the world around them.

Ms. Shin’s views of what is garbage and what is not is transformational.  If every item is seen for it’s potential instead of just using it once, the amount of garbage sent to overflowing landfills could easily be decreased.  In this manner, the world could become overflowing with art and beauty instead of overflowing with garbage as it currently is.  Imagine walking down the street and seeing art instead of trash lining the sidewalks.  Imagination and creativity can slowly start to change the world we live in or at least our own little piece of it.

Image Source

Jean Shin, Sound Wave, 2007

Installation at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York

Photo Courtesy of Jean Shin not to be duplicated in any way

This sculpture is appropriately titled “Sound Wave”  The melted records form a beautifully flowing wave just as the music that once placed on the records produced waves of sound to be listened to by their owners.  The colorful labels separate the records into their individual pieces while the wave is still viewed as a whole.  The viewer of this piece can imagine the immense number of snippets of music that once emanated from the records as well as imagine the owners these records once had.

Ms. Shin aims to show how each type of technology, be it record, eight track, tape, cd, is overtaken by a new wave of technology.  Each succeeding generation of recorded media is then rendered obsolete and antiquated.  Do small children even recognize records anymore?  Their view of music lies solely in the cd.  But this too is bound to change with time and changing, ever evolving waves of technology.

In the same way, types of the music itself is changing.  From jazz to rock to punk to grunge to rap to metal, etc. etc. etc.  People’s musical tastes and ideals are constantly changing over time both as a whole and individually.  There are constantly new musicians, new singers, and new songs to be listened to.  Whether they are enjoyed or hated, each song in itself is art.

Image Source

Image Source

Jean Shin, TEXTile, 2006

Photo by Aaron Igler, Courtesy of Jean Shin

Permanent Collection of Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA

This sculpture consists of over 22,000 recycled computer key caps and is over 20 feet long.  The key caps are mounted to fabric to form a continuous, undulating piece of textile.  This sculpture is also interactive in that the viewer can also become the user.  They can type their own messages onto the keys in the first three rows and see them projected onto the opposite end of the fabric.  The keys themselves are laid out to form a line-by-line transcript of emails between the artist, Jean Shin, and the fabricators of the actual piece.  These emails are all in regards to the creation of the artwork.  Because of this, the sculpture is actually made up of the documentation of it’s own making!  When viewers type in their own messages, this virtual dialogue is then continued.

This sculpture eludes to how much email has invaded our lives.  People obsessively check their emails and fore go phone calls or face to face conversations for the ease of using email instead.  These electronic messages have their own social structure and etiquette which is sometimes very different than communications in the real world.  Technology has changed and continues to change the world in which we live.  However, we are still using the same key board technology that our ancestors used in the days of the type writer.  Even the lay out of the key board is the same.  This shows that no matter how much things change, some things stay the same.  We have the same tactile sensations of moving our fingers over the key board.  The same touch on every key, every space, every comma and every period.

Image Source

Image Source

Jean Shin, Glass Block, 2006

Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA

Photo by Lara Swimmer, Courtesy of Jean Shin not to be duplicated in any way

This piece consists of hundreds of wine bottles siliconed together and fitted into the opening.  The light reflecting through the glass is reminiscent of a stained glass window.  The wine bottles were collected from the region, mainly from local bars and vineyards.  This reuse of the wine bottles is a perfect fit for the Museum of Glass.

The viewers of this piece could go through a range of experiences upon viewing.  They could think of the beauty of the vineyards that produced the wine.  Row after row of orderly grape plants carefully tended.  They could think of the consumers of the wine.  Perhaps the particular bottle was enjoyed over a romantic, candle lit dinner with promises of love and devotion.  Perhaps the wine was consumed by an alcoholic, just another bottle of alcohol in their slow decline towards depravity.  They could think of the stained glass windows illuminated with the rays of the sun in church.  The windows seemingly lit by God himself.

No matter what images this piece brings to mind, the viewer’s ideas of recycling will certainly be transformed.  Recycling is great for the environment.  It keeps items out of the landfills and contributes to a cleaner earth.  Upcycling removes the items from the circle of consumption all together.  This method of re-purposing gives value to items that were previously viewed as worthless.

Image Source

Jean Shin, Chemical Balance II, 2005

Photo by Ford Bailey, Courtesy of Jean Shin not to be duplicated in any way

University Art Museum, Albany, NY

This installation resembles stalagmites and stalactites forming in caves.  It is made up of thousands of empty prescription pill bottles and speaks to our culture’s dependence on pills of many varieties.  “Better living through chemistry” has become a phrase that we all live by.  Sometimes the pills are a necessity and sometimes, they are simply a way to make us feel as though we are doing something to “get better”.  Doctors over prescribe antibiotics, pain killers and mood altering drugs in astounding numbers which in turn, leads to the creation of super bugs, prescription addiction and walking zombies who are “easier” to deal with.

This massive grouping of empty bottles speak to the pills consumed.  The bottles represent tens of thousands of pills being taken by individuals.  The over all statement of the bottles is like a snap shot of our world — like a map of our people’s intake of various chemicals for a variety of reasons.

The fragility of the structures speaks to the fragile nature of our body’s natural balance.  We are constantly altering this balance through our diet, exercise and mostly, chemical intake.  Sometimes the prescriptions restore our natural balance and sometimes the prescriptions are yet another pollutant in an unending polluted world.

Image Source

Jean Shin, Chance City, 2004

Photo by Masahiro Noguchi, Courtesy of Jean Shin

Installation at Brooklyn Museum, New York

This piece is made up of precariously balanced buildings resembling a city.  The name “Chance City” comes from the fact that the buildings are made up of thousands of worthless scratch and win lottery tickets worth over $17,000.  These cards are balanced and constructed without the aid of any adhesive at all which makes the structures temporary at best although the artist declares that they are much sturdier than they look.  I certainly wouldn’t want anyone walking right up to the buildings for fear of them causing a collapse.

Ms. Shin says of this piece that: “the structures, literally held up by gravity and friction, are symbols of the American Dream representing how labor, money and resilience defy the odds of a fragile existence”.  Sometimes if one layer is removed, or even one card, the whole structure can collapse upon itself which seems to be what is happening currently to global economies.  Each successive layer — banks, automobile makers, store owners, etc. — are collapsing.  Homeowners are being foreclosed upon.  Employees are being let go.  It seems as though there will be nothing left soon.  All of this could happen but for the existence of hopes and dreams which will surely start to rebuild sooner than later.

My other articles concerning Artistic Recycling can be found here:

• Artistic Recycling: Retro Upcycled Records
• Artistic Recycling: Five Interesting Maps
• Artistic Recycling: Incredible Upcycled Dresses
• Artistic Recycling: Amazing Uses for Leftover Bottle Caps
• Artistic Recycling: Metal
• Artistic Recycling: Plastic Bottles
• Artistic Recycling: Egg Cartons
• Artistic Recycling: Tea Bags