Photo by Daniel Terna
Artist Jean Shin transforms overlooked materials into monumental installations that challenge our relationship with consumption and waste. Born in Seoul and raised in America, Shin’s sculptural and public art practice has a distinctive social and ecological lens. Her provocative works have been featured in major solo exhibitions at the nation’s most prestigious institutions, including MoMA, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, alongside presentations at over 150 major venues worldwide.Shin’s meticulous methodology involves intensive site-specific research, accumulating and reimagining discarded objects—pharmaceutical bottles, obsolete technologies, consumer waste—to unveil forgotten histories, illuminate unseen labor, and expose hidden narratives of community and environmental urgency. This transformative approach has earned her renowned residencies at MacDowell, Skowhegan, and Stanford University, alongside the Frederic Church Award recognizing her profound contribution to American culture.Celebrated in The New York Times, Sculpture Magazine and other publications, Shin’s immersive installations become powerful catalysts for social action. A tenured Adjunct Professor at Pratt Institute, she divides her practice between Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley.
Sea Change, 2023 Photo by Moko Fukuyama
Sea Change by Jean Shin is a powerful environmental statement crafted from over 7,000 single-use plastic water bottles. In partnership with the Health and Environmental Research Institute – Kenya (www.heri-kenya.org) and the Stanford LaBeaud lab (https://labeaudlab.wordpress.com/), Sea Change was installed in Diani, Kenya, and unveiled on Earth Day 2023 as part of the Plastic Planet project. This massive wave-shaped sculpture highlights the urgent plastic pollution crisis and the underlying inequity regarding safe water access in many parts of the world. Plastic waste not only clogs ecosystems but also creates breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes, as researched by the Stanford LaBeaud lab. Through Sea Change, partners from Kenya and the United States join forces to illuminate the devastating health impacts of single-use plastics on planetary and human well-being.
MAiZE, 2017 Photo by Joshua Ford
Inspired by the vast farmed landscape of the American heartland, Jean Shin created the immersive installation MAiZE in collaboration with 800 community volunteers from Davenport, Iowa. Composed of material normally discarded as the last link in an agricultural production and consumption chain, Shin repurposed thousands of green plastic soft-drink bottles into artificial “cornstalk” sculptures to form an elaborate maze. At a time when both the natural environment and our health face grave affronts and degradation, the grided field in MAiZE confronts the consequences of biodiversity loss. In addition to demonstrating the power of artmaking and community collaboration, the project engaged visitors in a dialogue about plastic waste, food choices and environmental stewardship. Instead of quick and convenient choices, how do we navigate our path out of these environmental crises to ensure a sustainable future?
The majority of plastic in this country is not recycled but instead ends up in landfills, the rivers, the oceans and other natural areas. The sheer mass of plastic in the installation encouraged visitors to consider plastic waste and its detrimental effects on the environment. The empty bottles, once filled with soda containing corn syrup, illustrate the issues of overconsumption and the harmful effects of processed foods on our health.
Invasives, 2020 Photo by Etienne Frossard
Single-use plastic waste is rapidly taking over our landscape, destroying critical habitats that our global ecosystems depend on. Plastic soda bottles while appearing convenient have a double threat because they also contain addictive high fructose corn syrup that are harmful to the body’s health and the environment.
