Meekyoung Shin (b. 1967) has been working between London and Seoul, using "soap" instead of traditional sculptural materials to recreate historical artifacts and artworks that represent specific cultures from a contemporary perspective. Through the physical nature of soap, which loses its form over time and under environmental conditions, Shin visualizes the "temporality" of culture and history by paralleling the weathering of artifacts and artworks over time.

Shin began contemplating cultural identity during her studies in the UK. Although she learned about Western art and history, she felt the cultural differences within it, leading her to present her unique "translation" of various religious, cultural, and historical issues as a 21st-century Asian artist.
 
The ‘Translation’ series, which started from this exploration, involves the artist recreating artifacts and artworks she has encountered using soap. Shin was inspired when she saw the restoration of a Neoclassical Bathing Venus statue in the main hall of her school in 1997. Observing the worn traces on the statue, she sensed the passage of time and became intrigued by how the statue had lost its original context. She described this decontextualization process as "artifactification" and recreated it using soap, contrasting its fragile nature with solid marble.

Early installations of the ‘Translation’ series featured soap sculptures placed alongside their original counterparts. These soap reproductions of classical sculptures may visually resemble the originals but are distinct through their scent. From 2000 onwards, the series began exploring varying distances between the original and the replica more deliberately. For instance, Shin would reenact the poses of the original sculptures, casting her own body in plaster to create the soap replicas.

Since 2004, she has been working on the ‘Toilet Project’, installing soap sculptures in toilet. These sculptures, shaped like Buddha statues or Greek figures, invite visitors to touch and erode them, reflecting how the meaning of cultural and religious icons can shift based on the cultural context of the space they occupy.

For example, placing a Buddha soap sculpture in a toilet in a country with a high Buddhist population might cause discomfort, while the same sculpture placed in the West might not been an issue. The worn soap sculptures are later displayed in museums like historical artifacts.

The ‘Translation–Vase’ series, first exhibited at the Asia House in London in 2006, involves soap replicas of ornate Chinese ceramics. These original vases were exported to the West from the 17th century and were often crafted to appear even more Chinese to suit Western tastes.
 
Shin viewed these vases as examples of "distorted translations" and placed the soap replicas on transport crates instead of traditional plinths to highlight their journey. By using materials that erode under environmental conditions, Shin challenges the authority of artifacts, artworks, and museums by presenting them in an unfinished state.

Through creating the 'Translation–Vase' series, Shin realized that soap is more solid than she initially thought, leading her to hollow out the interiors of the soap sculptures to mimic glass-like transparency. This work, named the ‘Ghost Series’, removes surface details, leaving only the shape and semi-translucent color of the vases, stripping away both material solidity and cultural context, resulting in ghost-like entities that linger as faint forms once the originals have disappeared.

In 2008, an encounter with an empty plinth in a park inspired her to start the Written in Soap: A Plinth Project (2012–), where she recreates and installs soap versions of original sculptures on outdoor plinths.
 
One such plinth originally held an equestrian statue commemorating the Duke of Cumberland, a war hero and the third son of King George II, which was later removed due to backlash over the Duke’s role in the Scottish massacre.
 
After four years of research and work, Shin recreated the statue in soap and placed it back on the plinth, sparking political interpretations and demands for its removal.

Shin continues to replicate the once-singular equestrian statue and install these soap versions worldwide. These soap monuments not only naturally weather over time but also break free from their specific historical contexts, scattering across the globe.
 
Shin evokes the ghosts of forgotten history, showing how a single event can be variably interpreted across different times and spaces. Like museum artifacts, historical facts can be decontextualized, repeatedly mistranslated, and reinterpreted to form new meanings.

"Visiting museums made me think that ‘artifacts are not made; they become.’ Nothing in a museum was originally intended to be an artifact.
 
Regardless of its initial purpose, it is the passage of time, burial, and eventual rediscovery that elevate something to artifact status on a museum shelf. Once something becomes an artifact, it loses its original function and becomes nothing but an artifact.
 
Similarly, soap sculptures lose their function once displayed in an exhibition, gaining new historicity depending on the context in which they are placed.” (MMCA Artist Talk | Meekyoung Shin)

Meekyoung Shin studied sculpture and obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Seoul National University, and furthered her studies at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London. During her graduate studies, Shin gained attention for her soap sculpture performances, leading to her invitation to the exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1998, where she recreated Greek sculptures from the British Museum in soap. In 2004, she continued her soap sculpture performances in the lobby of the British Museum. Recently, she has expanded her exploration beyond soap, delving into new materials such as ceramics, Jesmonite, bronze, and resin.
 
In South Korea, she has held solo exhibitions at institutions such as ARKO Art Center, Space K, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Seoul National University Museum of Art, and Sungkok Art Museum. Internationally, she has exhibited at Hakgojae Gallery in Shanghai, China, and in the UK at Haunch of Venison, London, Belton House, and Bristol Museum. In 2013, she was 

References

• 올해의 작가상, 신미경 (Korea Artist Prize, Meekyoung Shin)
• 신미경, Meekyoung Shin (Artist Website)
• 국립현대미술관, 신미경 | 트랜스레이션 시리즈 | 2006-2013 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), Meekyoung Shin | Translation Series | 2006-2013)
• 더 아트로, 비하인드 더 뷰티 – 신미경 작가 인터뷰
• 국립현대미술관, MMCA 작가와의 대화 | 신미경 작가 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), MMCA Artist Talk | Meekyoung Shin)