From Two Tons of Celadon, Jean Shin Sculpts a Metaphor for the Korean Diaspora

Incorporating nearly two tons of porcelain fragments, a monumental pair of vessels spills out into a pool of lustrous green at Green-House, Green-Wood. Shards of broken cups and saucers, pots, and other voluptuous forms blanket the gallery for a new installation by Jean Shin.

Celadon Landscape is one of the latest projects in which the artist transforms singular materials into sprawling sculptures. 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.

Green-Wood presents the second iteration of Celadon Landscape, which originated during the artist's visits with ceramicists and makers in South Korea. Celadon production has a lengthy history in the region and dates back to at least the 10th century. As Shin encountered 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. Fabricated by Miotto Mosaics Art Studios, Inc., Celadon Landscape is on view through January 17 in New York.