Where Fragments Linger by the Sea, 2026 – Jeewi Lee x Phillip C. Reiner

A 3d printed sand sculpture sits on a wooden crate in a gallery with concrete walls and stairs.

'Where Fragments Linger by the Sea' is the first institutional exhibition of Lee's sand works, presenting sculptures, screenprints and a video work, each tracing back to a single grain of sand captured by nano-CT scanning. The grains come from coastal locations across six continents: Taean-Bando in Korea, New York and Connecticut in the USA, the Alentejo in Portugal, Mallorca in Spain, Dakar in Senegal and Wilhelmshaven in Germany. At this exhibition, we welcome new works from the Nordsee region, among them a large sculpture from a grain collected at the Wilhelmshavener Südstrand.

Isolating single DICOM cross-sections from the scan data, bypassing the three-dimensional reconstruction used for the sculptures, the screenprints present sections from Stromboli and Ghana, in which mineral density is represented as grayscale image at approximately 1000 times the grain's actual size. On the print surface rests a layer of sand. Physical material and scanned data inhabit the same plane. The video work brings colourized nano-CT imaging to the Wilhelmshaven grain, rendering internal density structures as animated volumetric data.

As an artistic medium and a global resource, annual consumption of sand approaches 50 billion tons for use in construction, glass, microchips and filtration. Lee traces material memory through detritus; Reiner develops geometric structures within natural forms. Our collaboration uses precision imaging to expose what each grain carries from its formation and transport history.

A framed screen print hangs on a concrete wall near a staircase with glass railings.
A 3d printed sand sculpture sits on a wooden crate above concrete stairs in a gallery with screenprints on white walls.
A 3d printed sand sculpture sits on a wooden crate in a gallery with screenprints on the wall.
A 3d printed sand sculpture sphere sits on a wooden crate in a gallery.
A 3d printed sand sculpture rests on a wooden crate in a gallery with screen prints on the wall.
Two framed screen prints of sand grain scans hang on a white brick wall.
3d printed sand sculptures sit on wooden crates in a gallery with screenprints on the wall.
3d printed sand sculptures sit on a wooden crate and a glass sheet in a concrete room.
A video projection of a sand grain on a screen sits between 3d printed sand sculptures on wooden crates.
A white-framed screen print of a sand grain hangs on a concrete wall.

Photography: 2026 Jeewi Lee x Phillip C. Reiner
https://jeewi.de
https://www.kunsthalle-wilhelmshaven.de/en/exhibitions/jeewi-lee

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