Artist: |
Location: Gallery 456 |
Yi-kuan Lin has always explored the relationship between nature and the human body in her work. She grafted branches and flowers to human limbs in drawings, defining the body as the receptacle of desire for the urges of life. Using anatomical forms as a stylistic element, her works cut open the flesh and bones of humans and animals alike to reveal the lack of difference between living beings, since all corporeal forms are endless passageways connecting life to death.
Bio-study Studio is the project Lin created in-residence at Brooklyn’s International Studio & Curatorial Program in 2016. The artistic project, executed through observations of a life abroad, is a whole new experiment for the artist, who had mainly worked with drawings on paper as a medium of expression up until then.
In New York, continuing with her focus on biological diversity, the artist collected plant and animal materials such as seeds, leaves and shells in parks and by the sea. From the differences and similarities in these natural materials, she examined environmental characteristics such as geography, ecology and the climate.
She also observed supermarkets and farmer’s markets to gain understanding of the local produce, modes of food consumption, and the relationships between the consumption of organic food and its consumers. Taking one step further, she observed the methods of disposal for waste created by the above consumption, including waste sorting, and then solidified ideas formed during these observation into physical objects in her creations.
Lin researched topics such as the interdependent food relationship between humans, plants and animals, food safety, and recycling. Connecting these subject matters, she repurposed recycled containers that were easily accessible around the artistic residence and its neighborhood as planting receptacles, and made use of the excellent space and lighting in the studio to create a greenhouse for lettuce and other vegetables. As the indoor vegetable patch thrived through the spring and into summer, the artist also created installations using seeds and the remains of plant and animal life, combining living beings and what they leave behind into one room – the bio-study studio of her New York residency.
This exhibition is the culmination of the artist’s daily observations and environmental studies during her residency in New York. It includes visual records for her practice as an urban farmer; the spatial files for the greenhouse; the images and research material she collected during visits to the Museum of Natural History, the botanical gardens, and the Morbid Anatomy Museum; and her drawings and textual documentation of local natural objects.
Video VOA Interview/美國之音採訪 |
Exhibition Sponsors Ministry of Culture Taiwan |
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