09/30/2026
Faculty Jean Shin ✨
Featured in Hyperallergic Thank you Anna Lee for covering my latest project Brooklyn Army Terminal
While its green, blue, and sandy camo swaths pose a striking contrast to the industrial concrete site, the military pattern also evokes themes that may resonate with the nearby immigrant communities of Sunset Park, probing the question of belonging in new environments, whether that be the disguise donned in the US military’s covert missions, the transportation of native plants to new countries, or the forced displacement of war-torn communities.
For Shin, war has long been an intimate subject. “When I started to think about the destruction that was happening, it became really personal,” said. “My family’s from South Korea. The Korean War created such devastation to the people, culture, and landscape.”
With her family’s history in mind, Shin became invested in the role that horticulture plays in camouflage designs. On the green banner, Shin overlays plants such as mugwort, a native Korean plant, popular herb, and ancient medicinal remedy. However, in North America, mugwort is usually considered an invasive w**d.
“There’s sometimes a misunderstanding of calling plants ‘invasives.’ They were brought over because they looked pretty or were medicinal or helpful,” Shin said. “But then people blame these foreign plants — and by extension, the regions and people they come from — treating them as something to be suspicious of, something that might ‘take over.’ That becomes even more disturbing to me when you consider the U.S. military is the one actually invading other countries.”
