Nearly two tons of porcelain fragments form a monumental pair of vessels that spill into a lustrous green pool in the Green-House at Green-Wood. The installation, Celadon Landscape, uses found objects with traces of prior use, nesting them into sculptural works that connect consumption, environmental care, and community. The second iteration originated from visits with ceramicists and makers in South Korea, where celadon production dates back to at least the 10th century. Imperfect discarded pieces became a metaphor for belonging, repair, and diaspora. Two bulbous vessels are reconstructed from donated materials near Icheon, cloaked in patterned, painted, stamped, and textured pottery. The vessels remain fragmented, with imperfection treated as beauty and memory rather than loss.
"Incorporating nearly two tons of porcelain fragments, a monumental pair of vessels spills out into a pool of lustrous green. Shards of broken cups and saucers, pots, and other voluptuous forms blanket the gallery of the Green-House at Green-Wood for a new installation by Jean Shin."
"Celadon Landscape is one of the latest projects in which the artist transforms a singular material into a sprawling sculpture. Found objects that bear traces of their former purposes and users are prized possessions in Shin's New York studio, as these often-discarded items are nested into dynamic works that consider the relationship between consumption, environmental care, and community."
"As Shin encountered the heaps of imperfect pieces these artisans had cast aside, she found the pale green-blue material an apt metaphor for belonging, repair, and the diaspora. "Celadon vases occupy a prized place in Korean cultural history-objects of reverence, painstakingly made and carefully preserved," the artist says. "In Celadon Landscape, I shift the gaze to what is usually discarded: thousands of broken ceramic shards. I see in their imperfection not loss, but beauty-fragments that still pulse with the memory of Korea's enduring legacy.""
"With materials donated by studios in and near the city of Icheon, Shin conceived of two bulbous vessels cloaked in patterned, painted, stamped, and textured bits of pottery. Resting on their sides, the mosaic forms appear to emerge from the earth below, as if they've been uncovered in an archaeological dig. None of the vessels-the original pieces or the large-scale reconstructions-is presented whole and unblemished, suggesting a fragmentation that doesn't disappear but rather is made anew."
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