SEEPING, ROTTING, RESTING, WEEPING | CANDICE LIN
At the center of the exhibition room, a large indigo tent is the structure on which strange feline and human creatures are represented, genitals that transform into cat faces and references to human history. The tent, a clear reference to the architectures that characterized the homes of nomadic populations, becomes the shelter for a series of sculptural elements that Candice Lin distributes in the space: we find sculptures of men/dogs/cats in which several heads coexist on a single body, carpets in which ancestral figures are represented, which could easily be archaeological finds of ancient tribes, felines and canids in copper and cathode ray tubes in which animations of cats are projected that interact with each other with human movements. Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping (2021) is a constellation of artistic elements and languages in which much importance is given to the techniques used by the artist to create each piece: therefore there is the process of fermentation, filtering and dyeing that make up the large indigo curtains like the various stages of making carpets and sculptures. In this perspective, each object assumes a strong link with the material and the process of which it is made.
The installation project by the American artist Candice Lin releases the evocative power of the object, giving it a new emotionality: the nomadic tent is transformed into a sanctuary, a temple in which one feels an instant devotion to those grotesque figures who do not scare but rather they seem to reconnect us with something lost and forgotten. Lin offering a complex but homogeneous and organic imagery, proposes a home in which rest, stop and find the time to relate to these protagonists who seem to have a story to tell.
While on the one hand the technical and artisanal aspect of the work is an element on which the artist places great attention, on the other hand the chemical and organic processes used in the creation phase of Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping a bodily closeness to it: and it is precisely with a reflection on the body that the experience of the environmental work concludes. A video in which a cat/pig, generated by the artist through 3D digital moderation, invites the observer to move his body following Chicong exercises.
In this perceptive theatre, Candice Lin offers a rediscovered and shared moment in relation to the animal and the most unconscious and emotional part of us: giving a sense of security and harmony within the exhibition space, the artist with her galaxy of characters, materials and processes, leads the visitor to immerse themselves in a new dimension.
Candice Lin
Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping, 2021
Hand-printed (katazome) and hand-drawn (tsutsugaki) indigo panels, steel bar, dyed rugs, glazed ceramics, epoxy resin, feathers, block-printed and digitally printed fabric (masks), bells, tassels, and miscellaneous small objects, dimensions adaptable.
Installation view, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA, 2021. Courtesy of the artist, the Walker Art Center, and François Ghebaly Gallery. Photo: Awa Mally
18/03/2023
