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Lost Vista, 2010
In collaboration with architect Brian Ripel
Keys, custom-cast brass and digital video projection
144 x 144 x 288 inches
Commissioned by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ for the exhibition, Jean Shin & Brian Ripel, Unlocking
Lost Vista addresses how we orient ourselves relative to the surrounding landscape, and maps our collective memory of intimate places once inhabited. Nearly eight thousand used keys were donated by individuals, meticulously sorted, measured, and set into custom-built brass tiles. The resulting sculpture simulates in miniature the striking topography of the Phoenix metro area, the upturned ridges and grooves of the keys like the silhouettes of mountains. This intricate landscape is magnified through digital projection, creating a desert landscape spanning the full length of the gallery wall. The collected keys, stripped of their functionality, take on new imagined qualities—unlocking desire, nostalgia and curiosity for now inaccessible spaces.