Jean Shin: Perch

APRIL 22, 2024 - NOVEMBER 1, 2024

Appleton Farms:

219 County Road, Hamilton & Ipswich, MA 01938

With Appleton Farms’ storied history and current ecological and agricultural activities, Jean Shin’s Perch will explore temporality (ecological and agricultural time) and regeneration. At Appleton, bobolinks—songbirds who make the long migratory journey from the southern hemisphere and whose populations are in decline—are the primary birds that use the grasslands and hayfields as their nesting site.

Marking sites where the Trustees’ ecology team monitors the bobolink population, Shin will create sculptural platforms made from fallen and dead trees found throughout Appleton that visitors can engage with, as they ultimately become participants in this critical monitoring throughout the project’s run. Within the nesting area, Shin will create sculptural perches made from fallen trees and salvaged copper in which male bobolinks can perch to search for mates and mark their territory.

Moreover, Jean Shin’s Perch will integrate into the landscape and support the agroecological work at the farm and is intended to visualize, amplify, and raise awareness around this critical species and its habitat as well as the important endeavors at Appleton Farms.

About the Artist

Jean Shin (b. 1971, Seoul, Korea) is known for her expansive sculptures and installations confronting societal and ecological challenges. Her process is research-driven and participatory, engaging deeply with the materials she works with and the contexts in which she functions for each project. Shin salvages and transforms discarded objects—from mobile phones, discarded commercial leather, to Mountain Dew soda bottles—into potent monuments that interrogate our complex relationship between material consumption, collective identity, and community engagement. Shin received her BFA in painting and MS in art history and criticism at the Pratt Institute. She has had solo presentations at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, and recently received the Frederic Church Award from the Olana Partnership for her contributions to American art and culture.

Jean Shin: Perch is organized by guest curator Jessica S. Hong in partnership with The Trustees and staff at its deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, as part of its Art & The Landscape initiative.

Lead support for Art at The Trustees is provided by Mr. Richard M. Coffman and Mrs. Gabrielle C.F. Coffman. This project is also supported by Janet and David Offensend, Susan Denison, Pamela B. Weatherbee, Mr. Patrick J. and Mrs. Pamela C. Pedonti, and Valentine Talland and Nagesh Mahanthappa.