Motorists, pedestrians, and commuters are the beneficiaries of the eloquent beauty of “Celadon Remnants” at the LIRR's Broadway Station in Flushing, Queens. 

Using celadon fragments, artist Jean Shin created large-scale mosaic murals that feature the shapes and silhouettes of pottery. The mosaics are installed on the south stair walls (facing Northern Boulevard) and in architectural niches in the station building. The vessel or teapot forms were created from thousands of celadon fragments, hand-selected and donated by the city of Icheon, South Korea. The grayish-green forms against a white tile background create an abstract interplay between the positive and negative colored shapes. The aesthetic appeal of celadon lies in its eloquent beauty and simplicity. Derived from ancient China and perfected in Korea, celadon wares are among the most widely admired of Korean ceramics. 

If a vessel is imperfect, it becomes scrap and there are mountains of fragments in the Icheon region of Korean. Shin was determined to use these cast-off fragments, and the artwork serves as a metaphor for the history, culture, and identity of the Asian population in Queens. For Shin, the thriving Asian-American communities neighboring the Broadway Station bear resemblance to the “Celadon Remnants” — as each are transformed in a new location in a distinctively new form while preserving their cultural heritage.

Known for her large-scale installations and public sculptures, Jean Shin transforms accumulations of discarded objects into site-specific installations. By amassing large quantities of umbrellas, soda bottles, mobile phones, or pill caps in a labor-intensive and participatory process, Shin’s work interrogates our complex relationship between material consumption, collective identity and community engagement. Born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in the United States, Shin works in Brooklyn and Hudson Valley, New York. She is a tenured Adjunct Professor at Pratt Institute and holds an honorary doctorate from New York Academy of Art. Shin’s work has been widely exhibited and collected in over 150 major museums and cultural institutions.