Vintage Mother-of-Pearl buttons, mesh, fabric, metal and wood armature
Tidal Witness #1, 35 x 44 x 30 in
Tidal Witness #2, 34 x 35 x 33 in
Tidal Witness #3, 31 x 33 x 34 in
Tidal Witness #4, 36 x 33 x 27 in
Tidal Witness #5, 26 x 24 x 25 in
Tidal Witness #6, 28 ½ x 25 x 26 in
Jean Shin: Second Skin, Installation at Praise Shadows Gallery, Brookline, MA
ReFuse: Art From the Everyday, Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn, NY
Tidal Witness repurposes the blankets of vintage pearl buttons from Jean Shin’s 2022 installation Freshwater into a series of freestanding sculptures. Freshwater spoke to the overharvesting of freshwater mussels by 19th century button manufacturers, and the crucial role mussels play in river ecologies. In that sculpture, 30 blown-glass orbs were suspended to create a soaring 16-foot high fountain, with live mussels filtering polluted Delaware River inside select orbs. The cleaned water then pooled onto a bed of vintage shell buttons, which Shin salvaged from a fashion warehouse in New Jersey. In Tidal Witness, these buttons are transformed again, cascading in waves from custom metal armatures.
