Jean Shin: Floating Maize is a stunning new installation floating high above the grand stairway in the Winter Garden area of Brookfield Place. On the ground level, Jean Shin: The Last Straw. Let’s step inside.
Planet Earth has been drowning in plastic. It’s filling up our oceans, our landfills, and jeopardizing our marine life. It’s said that there is a ton of plastic garbage for every person on Earth. 9 billion tons of plastic has been produced since 1950 and the majority of it is still here, polluting every corner of Earth. It is with this grave reality in mind that artist Jean Shin created her commissioned pieces for Arts Brookfield.
Floating Maize and The Last Straw put plastics front and center, as Shin repurposed thousands of green plastic soda bottles into an elaborate floating installation, adding the much-discussed plastic straw within the context of sustainability in everyday life, and within our global ecosystem.
Shin’s thoughtful creations ask viewers to reconsider each one of our every-day uses of products. Should you exchange your use of plastic bottles for glass, ceramic, stainless steel, plant based-plastics or boxed/paper reusable bottles? Carry your own environmentally-friendly straw?
Jean Shin is best known for her transformation of everyday objects, best said by the artist herself, “transforming them into visually alluring conceptual explorations, my work speaks to the optimism inherent in giving new form to life’s leftovers.” Her past installations have included such everyday objects as broken umbrellas, donated clothing, losing lottery tickets, empty wine bottles, discarded computer keycaps…..
Jean Shin: Floating Maize and Jean Shin: The Last Straw curated by Kendal Henry, Director of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art Program, will be on view through September 18, 2020 at Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street, NYC, open from 10:00am to 8:00pm. This installation is co-presented by Arts Brookfield and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) and as part of River To River 2020: Four Voices.
You’ll need a scooter to keep up with Kendal Henry, who just curated this fabulous Black Lives Matter Mural on Centre Street (below), with his Percent for Art Team just prior to this weeks Brookfield Place installation ~ and we are ten-steps behind him, as he just arrived at Socrates Sculpture Garden for their new Summer 2020 Installation.
While you’re Downtown, stroll over to The Mural Project near The Oculus.