Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/78062
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF JEAN SHIN & BRIAN RIPEL ART FULL Brian Ripel (2012). putting the tea in retreat THREE NEW INSTALLATIONS AT THE DECORDOVA SCULPTURE PARK AND MUSEUM TRANSFORM EVERYDAY OBJECTS INTO ELEGANT EXPRESSIONS OF ESCAPISM. BY JESSICA LANIEWSKI T he soothing act of drinking tea has long been a ceremonial comfort, but artists Jean Shin and Brian Ripel have elevated it to an art form with their newest installations at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. The duo constructed the temporary Tea House on the sixth-floor roof terrace, sewing together tens of thousands of red drink-stirrers to mimic thatch-roof construction. The pavilion opened on June 17 for the public to see. Inspired by Henry David Thoreau's move to Walden Pond in 1845 and Julian deCordova's retirement to Flint's Pond in 1881, the pair set out to explore the idea of social retreat in a modern context. Both Thoreau's connection to the invention of the modern pencil and deCordova's employment as a tea merchant were drawn upon in order to meld their lives together in Jean Shin and Brian Ripel: Retreat. 74 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM "The artists wanted to construct a pavilion that framed the landscape and overlooked Flint's Pond," says assistant curator Lexi Lee Sullivan. Shin and Ripel encouraged pavilion visitors to make themselves a cup of tea and then to hang their used tea bags inside the pavilion to dry. These tea bags provided the main material for the inverted model of the deCordova hanging from the ceiling in one of the fourth-floor Foster Galleries. In another fourth-floor gallery, Shin and Ripel constructed a large-scale pencil drawing of Thoreau's survey of Walden Pond on a 21-foot-long series of wood panels leaned up against a wall. The indoor installations open September 2 and will be on view through December 30. The Tea House will be on view through December 30 as well, weather permitting. 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, 781-259-8355; decordova.org BC Tea House, by Jean Shin and