Jean Shin, Lost and Found (Single Socks), Socks, zippers and dryer lint, 2000
“The artist has united lost and forgotten socks typically found in public laundromats. Socks of similar colors and styles are sewn and zippered together into small clusters and stuffed with dryer lint.”
Jean Shin, Alterations, Fabric (pants scraps) and wax, 1999
“In Alterations, a colorful and dense cityscape is constructed of hundreds of cylindrical forms made from the leftover fabric of shortened pants and blue jeans. The standing heights of each wax-stiffened cuff represent the measurement of the body in absence. The installation comments on one’s failure to measure up to the fashion industry’s standard size. At the same time, the cast-off cuffs refer to a population—predominantly Asian immigrants—who make up a large portion of the clothing industry’s workforce, including sweat-shop seamstresses, tailors and dry-cleaners.”
Jean Shin, Chance City, $32,404 worth of discarded “Scratch & Win” losing lottery tickets (no adhesive),2001-9
“Chance City is made up of thousands of discarded scratch-and-win lottery tickets that have been arranged into an urban complex, constructed as a house of cards. Embodying the failed hopes of ordinary people, the worthless lottery tickets become building blocks for monumental, yet temporary structures. While no glue was used to make these towering and precariously-balanced edifices, they are sturdier than they look. 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.”
Themed Thursday: $$$
This week’s Themed Thursday will focus on money. We will show a variety of works in which artists use cash in unexpected ways to question the value of the dollar and how money affects every aspect of our lives. You can look forward to sculptures by Holton Rower and Justine Smith, collages by Mark Wagner, an installation by Jean Shin, prints by Andy Warhol among other interesting works. Be sure to send us an ask if you have any suggestions for cash monay themed works!
Jean Shin, Unravelling, yarn of sweaters collected from the Asian American art community, installation at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., 2009
Jean Shin, TEXTile, 2006
Jean Shin, Chemical Balance, 2005-2009
One day each year – April 12 in 2014 – people all over the world visit local museums and galleries to look at art slowly. Participants look at five works of art for 10 minutes each and then meet together over lunch to talk about their experience. That’s it. Simple by design, the goal is to focus on the art and the art of seeing.
