Client: The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Overview

Meekyoung Shin is a renowned Korean artist known for her innovative use of soap as a medium. Her site-specific commission at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Eastern Deities Descended,” is a captivating sculpture crafted from 50,000 bars of soap. The unique material choice imbues the artwork with a sense of impermanence, as the soap will gradually change over time, symbolizing deeper meanings. Shin’s work is also featured in the museum’s exhibition “The Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989,” which explores themes such as conformity, displacement, gender, coexistence, and dissonance through various mediums.

Goals

To explores themes such as conformity, displacement, gender, coexistence, and dissonance through the medium of soap.

Process

The Johnson Atelier worked with Meekyoung and the PMA to make her vision a reality. The Atelier team designed and built 3 massive 2 ton blocks of soap, melted down from 50,000 individual bars of amber colored glycerin. The original small scale maquettes were scanned, scaled and output as plotted print templates for Meekyoung and her assistants to reference and begin hand carving. For more than 8 weeks she was onsite at the Johnson Atelier working with our skilled team to meticulously develop and detail these three epic figures which will grace the entrance of the museum for the next few months, slowly transforming right before our eyes.
This installation of Meekyoung Shin's Eastern Deities Descended on the terrace of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for today's opening of the exhibition, The Shape of Time.
Meekyoung Shin, Eastern Deities Descended, Commissioned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2023

Additional Information

The Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989 was on display until February 11th, 2024