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Museum Hours
Thu–Mon: 10 AM–5 PM
Tue–Wed: Closed
Location
200 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.581.3500
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Contemporary Art

Jean Shin | Pause

Feb 6, 2020 – Nov 29, 2020
Lee Gallery
Using discarded cell phones and computer cables as the material and rough-hewn rocks from Chinese art as the form, Jean Shin’s site-specific installation asks how technological innovation contributes to climate change.
 

When the museum invited New York–based artist Jean Shin to create a site-specific installation, she started with the context. “I began thinking about the Bay Area as the historical epicenter of both tech and the environmental movement,” she says. Pause connects these two ideas by using e-waste as the material and the scholar’s rock, symbolizing a fetish for nature, as the form. Pause is an installation of and about technology, but without electricity, WiFi, flashing lights, moving images or sound.

The project began with a call for donations of old cell phones and Ethernet cables. “I am always thinking about waste,” says Shin, who has created previous installations from discarded pill bottles, umbrellas and 35mm slides. “I wanted to use e-waste to raise the issue of ethics in tech,” she explains. “Engineers are always racing to innovate, to create new software without always thinking about how the hardware will be left behind.”

In her studio, the artist constructed three sculptures from obsolete cell phones in forms reminiscent of irregular, rough-hewn scholar’s rocks in Chinese art. In the gallery, miles of old computer cables on the floor encircle these vertical forms, suggesting ocean waves or the raked gravel of Zen gardens. Finally, donated data devices are entombed by cords to create orb-like seating.

Shin hopes that when you visit Pause, you will do just that: unplug from your devices and experience stillness within the silent gallery space. The installation aims to create a place to reflect — on toxic e-waste’s impact on the environment, on the planned obsolescence central to our consumer culture and on ways to reclaim ourselves in today’s attention economy.

Exhibition-Related Event

Thursday, Feb 6, 2020: An Evening with Artist Jean Shin

What People Are Saying

KQED selected Jean Shin | Pause as one of the six Bay Area art shows to see in 2020.
 
 
Jean Shin | Pause
Organizers & Sponsors

Jean Shin | Pause is organized by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. This exhibition is a part of the Asian American Experience, which is made possible with the generous support of Glen S. and Sakie T. Fukushima, an anonymous donor in memory of Ambassador and Mrs. Sampson Shen, and Claudine Cheng. Materials for this exhibition are provided by GreenCitizen, making every day earth day.

Sustained support generously provided by the following endowed funds:
Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Endowment Fund for Exhibitions
Kao/Williams Contemporary Art Exhibitions Fund


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