Meekyoung Shin (
Korean: 신미경; b. 1967) is a South Korean sculptor who specializes in
soap carving to create statues and other objects in Greco-Roman, Korean, and Chinese styles.
The size of her work ranges from handheld size to towering sculptures,[6] with one of her sculptures utilizing 50,000 bars of soap.[7] Her methods include using plaster to cast elements, and then sculpting with replications of Greco-Roman sculpture styles,[8] Chinese ceramic styles,[9] or Korean ceramic styles.[6] The use of scented soap is significant in her work as an added sensory experience in her exhibitions. In her exhibitions for Toilet Bodhisattva,[10] she cast small versions of a Buddha statue so that the viewer may experience the same material used in the exhibition.[9] For other Toilet Project works, she created statues of classical busts.[11] Shin has cast parts of herself to make sculptures,[12] such as in her work Crouching Aphrodite.[13]
Work
The material she uses is meant to call into question the nature of stability and the meaning in cultural contexts.[6][14] The use of soap is meant to explore translation across cultures[15] and the passage of time.[16] She changed the features to evoke Asian features on her 2002 statue Crouching Aphrodite to challenge classical standards of beauty.[17][11] Her work is also sometimes painted, or formed with pieces missing to better evoke the cultures that the inspiration derives from.[18] She additionally uses materials such as fragrance, pigments, varnish, gold leaf, resin, and acrlyic in her work.[11][19]
A statue of Prince William, Duke of Cumberland was removed in 1868, then replicated by Shin in soap (initially in clay);[20] the replication was installed on the same plinth in 2012 at
Cavendish Square, and left exposed to the elements for over a year in the London rain until its removal in 2016.[21][22] The statue, called Written in Soap: A Plinth Project,[23] was meant to be there for a year, and the dissolution of the material is meant to refer to changing meaning of statues and changing perceptions of history.[24][25][26] The soap was scented,[26] vegetable-based, and had a skeletal support attached to the base holding the sculpture upright.[27] This work has been cited in investigations into colonial legacy in public spaces.[28]