Art exhibit is a COVID retreat with layers of meaning
Candice Lin, assistant professor in the UCLA Department of Art, investigates the legacies of colonialism, racism, and sexism by mapping the trade routes and histories of a range of colonial goods. Co-organized by the Walker Art Center and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, "Candice Lin: Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping" is composed of a site-specific installation that responds to the space of the gallery at each institution, allowing the shape of the work to evolve over the course of its presentation.
Sculptures hold up tapestries making the installation "Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping" at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis on June 5. Photo by Evan Frost | MPR News "When artist Candice Lin looked for ways to respond to the pandemic, she began building. The resulting structure — part tent, part retreat and part history lesson — is now on show at the Walker Art Center.
The official title of the work is "Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping." Spread across the floor of a Walker gallery it resembles a desert nomad's tent dyed a deep indigo.
"I think I wanted to create a space of, like, intimacy and touch and rest. And we started calling it our feline temple like midway through planning the catalog in the show,” Lin said , sitting in the tent on the carpet, surrounded by a half dozen ceramic cats.
They were inspired in part by her own cat, Roger. Yet like many things in Lin's piece, there's more to these cats than meets the eye.
"This is based on Tang Dynasty cat, ceramic cat pillow, that also had this kind of weird human face, but it's very comfortable," she said.
Visitors are encouraged to see just how comfortable by taking a load off and lying down. Lin designed everything in this show to be touched. That decision came early in the pandemic, as people were being told to keep isolated from each other where possible.
"I was really optimistic because I was like, ‘oh, it'll be so nice to create a place where, after this is all over, we can be touching things again, and like thinking about our bodies and like being in space together with these tactile materials.’ "
So you can touch the tent and the demon statues that serve as tent poles. You can lie on the carpet and watch the animated videos she created. You can also join in a qigong class, based on a video tape her parents use at home. Lin's version is led by a jovial, garishly colored cat demon.
“I feel like it wouldn't make sense for it to exist and not have it be like a space you can enter and like, touch and interact with,” Lin said. “And I have this weird trust in the audience. I'm like, they're gonna not want to, like, purposefully mess anything up. You know? I hope that's true.”
Visitors are encouraged to sit with a friend and explore what Lin calls tactile theaters. They are sculpted surfaces, with curves, and crannies, and even an ear in one of them. They are set up like chess tables, with chairs." — Euan Kerr, Aug. 6, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the MPR News website.
HEADER IMAGE: Artist Candice Lin inside of her installation "Seeping, Rotting, Resting, Weeping." Photo by Evan Frost | MPR News
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