Meekyoung Shin b.1967

EDUCATION:

Specialist Research Development Programme, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK; M.F.A. in Sculpture, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK; M.A. in Sculpture, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea; B.A. in Sculpture, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

SOLO - 2004 British Museum, London, UK, c urated by James Putnam; 2002 Tokyo Humanite Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea

GROUP ? 2006 On , Cover Up, London, UK; Art Brussels, Brussels, Belgium; Wunderkammer-Artificial Kingdom , The Collection ? Art and Archeology in Lincolnshire, UK; 2005 TwentyOne: New Work by Students at The Slade School of Fine Art ? Sculpture in the Workplace , curated by Ann Elliott for Canary Wharf Group Plc, London, UK; Telltale , Museum of Ehwa University, Seoul, South Korea; 2004 Gwangju Biennale ? Korea Express , Gwangju, South Korea ; Interim Show , Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK ; 2002 eleven & eleven Korea Japan Contemporary Art 2002 , Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea; 2001 Alchemy , Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea ; The 5 th Moran Sculpture Grand Prix , Moran Museum of Art, Masuk, South Korea; The 5 th Galerie BHAK Contest of the Young & Remarkable Artist , Galerie BHAK, Seoul, South Korea

If an object is moved from its familiar surrounding to a different surrounding, would it remain a same object? When objects, language, even people are 'translated' to a different place, what happens to it? This question is not an arbitrary question in a society like Korea which claims a homogenous race and culture but in fact is a result of complex mixture of both internal and external influences. Whenever objects, words or symbols are introduced, it has to be 'translated' and thus can lose as well as gain new ¢®¢ēmeanings'. Mee-Kyung Shin has continually asked and explored this question in her works.

Her life-size sculpture which resembles a faultless white marble Greek figurine is in fact a sculpture of herself, made of soap. Originally displayed in the British Museum alongside other authentic Greek figurines, it makes us wonder what 'authenticity' is. Also, by substituting marble with soap and physically perfect Caucasian woman with a physically imperfect Oriental woman, it makes us question our standards of beauty, history and time. Her other works on display are soap-copies of Chinese vases dating from Ming and Qing dynasties, and it seems to comment that this difficulty of translation is not only between the West and the East, but within the East itself.

Translation: Chinese Vase (2006)
Soap, pigment, stainless steel base, wooden crate
59 x 59 x 71 (h) cm

Courtesy of the artist

Translation - Crouching Aphrodite (2002)
Soap, metal amateur
65 x 47 x 109 (h) cm

Courtesy of the artist