Jean Shin: The Museum Body

For her installation at the Carter, titled Jean Shin: The Museum Body, Shin seeks to create a textile-based “portrait” of the Museum’s staff, both those visible and invisible to the general public, who enable a museum to function. The installation will consist of donated garments representing the collective work of the people within the institution. Separating the fabric from its seams, Shin will shape these elements into a large-scale wall mural with immersive hanging elements that will activate the gallery walls and ceiling. The clothing will be collected from members of the Carter’s staff—including curators, conservators, educators, executive leadership, facilities staff, and more—and then deconstructed, re-assembled, and installed with a focus on adapting to the unique architecture of the space. The democratization of the collected garments invokes the breakdown of institutional hierarchies.

As with much of Shin’s work, Jean Shin: The Museum Body deconstructs the familiar to create something entirely new. Shin sees the clothing’s seams as the structure—the mechanisms of an institution, the system in place that enables it to retain its function—whereas the actual fabric itself, the individuals within the institution, are what provide protection, warmth, and softness. In her creation of a soft sculpture, she nods at the concepts of “soft power” and “soft skills” often found in museum spaces, probing the role of identity and visibility within the greater context of a community. With the original 2004 MoMA project being Shin’s first solo exhibition, this new iteration bridges the years in between, capturing not only the changes within Shin’s own career but also the tectonic shifts that have occurred at the core of the global workplace.

Jean Shin: The Museum Body is organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The exhibition is supported in part by the Alice L. Walton Foundation Temporary Exhibitions Endowment.