Mother-of-pearl shell buttons, thread, and canvas mounted on wood panel
16 ft x 5 ft x 5 in
Permanent Installation in the lobby at Perelman Performing Arts Center, World Trade Center Site, New York, NY
With Water's Echo, artist Jean Shin has reimagined the topography of downtown New York and drawn a direct connection to the location of the Performing Arts Center. She created this work by composing and sewing together thousands of mother-of-pearl shell buttons that had been sitting, unwanted, in a warehouse. Her expansive aerial map delineates land, water, and a network of estuaries, including the point where the Hudson River meets the Atlantic Ocean. The lighter buttons correlate to land, the darker ones to water.
Made from the inner layers of shells, notably oysters and mussels, this mass of commonplace buttons, in Shin's hands, reflects on many historic layers of the Center's site. The traditional home of Indigenous peoples, primarily the Lenape, the rich marine life and ecosystems that were native to this area included plentiful oyster beds. Once known as "Oyster Island," in the mid-19th century the farming and distribution of oysters was one of the region's foremost industries.
As she repurposes and effectively returns this collection of buttons to the site, Shin invites us to reflect on its environmental loss, the process of renewal, and the resonant histories of where we stand.
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