Mel Chin
Encyclopedia
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
visual artist. Motivated largely by political, cultural, and social circumstances, Chin works in a variety of art media to calculate meaning in modern life. Chin places art in landscapes, in public spaces, and in gallery and museum exhibitions, but his work is not limited to specific venues. Chin once stated: “Making objects and marks is also about making possibilities, making choices—and that is one of the last freedoms we have. To provide that is one of the functions of art.”
Peabody College
Peabody College of Education and Human Development was founded in 1875 when the University of Nashville, located in Nashville, Tennessee, split into two separate educational institutions...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. Shortly after, in 1976, Chin created See/Saw: The Earthworks for Hermann Park
Hermann Park
Hermann Park is one of Houston's most-visited public parks. Situated between Fannin Street and Cambridge Street, it is within walking distance from the Texas Medical Center, Rice University, and the Museum District, and within a few miles of the Third Ward, the historic Astrodome and Reliant Stadium...
in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, where the artist manipulated two sections of the park’s surface to create a kinetic, minimalist earthwork. In this mimic of a childhood pastime, Chin altered the landscape with an underground hydraulic device that allowed the participant to shift large sections of earth with their body weight. The title also questions psychological perception of what is above and below an objects surface. This piece addressed three of the major art trends of the time: minimalism
Minimalism
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...
, conceptualism
Conceptualism
Conceptualism is a philosophical theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between Nominalism and Realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical concept of universals from a perspective that denies...
, and earthworks.
Bryant Park
Bryant Park is a 9.603 acre privately managed public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan...
. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund
Public Art Fund
The Public Art Fund is a non-profit organization founded in 1977 by Doris Freedman , a Director of New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs, and the President of the Municipal Art Society. They have organized highly visible artists' projects, new commissions, installations and exhibitions in...
, the work was based on a Gustave Doré
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
engraving depicting Myrrha
Myrrha
Myrrha , also known as Smyrna , is the mother of Adonis in Greek mythology. She was transformed into a myrrh tree after having had intercourse with her father and gave birth to Adonis as a tree...
in the 30th canto of Hell from Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
’s Inferno
Inferno (Dante)
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...
. Chin created a three-dimensional figurative sculpture employing 19th century fabrication techniques, conjoined with space-age materials.
In 1989, Chin had a one-person exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. In The Operation of the Sun through the Cult of the Hand (1987), Chin addressed ancient Greek philosophy
Greek philosophy
Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BCE and continued through the Hellenistic period, at which point Ancient Greece was incorporated in the Roman Empire...
and Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy
Chinese philosophy is philosophy written in the Chinese tradition of thought. The majority of traditional Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States era, during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and...
. He investigated mythological constructions, and scientific information to contradict personal interpretations in the formulations of these works. Chin used nine planets of the solar system to launch this elaborate construction. The installation comments on the origins of word material and form from East and West by drawing upon mythology, alchemy, and science in each culture.
Also in this exhibition were three major pieces with political content; The Extraction of Plenty from What Remains: 1823- (1989) is composed of two replicated White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
columns that squeeze a cornucopia hand-crafted of mahogany, banana, mud, coffee, and goats’ blood. In this artwork Chin reacted to the long history of American foreign policy that has fractured the ability of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries to prosper on their own. The date in the title 1823-(ongoing) is in reference to the Monroe Doctrine
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention...
. The Sigh of the True Cross (1988) is based on a single string Ethiopian masinqo, or spike fiddle. Chin compounds the iconography of the musical instrument and the hammer and sickle
Hammer and sickle
The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
to comment on famine, drought, failed politics, and foreign aid in the history of Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
. The Opera of Silence (1988) is also complex and layered with meaning. An oversized Beijing opera drum rests on a staff made of human thigh bone, and the drum skins are woven into the emblem of the C.I.A. commenting on the interrelations of China, Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, and the C.I.A..
Chin conceptually developed the GALA Committee for the project called In the Name of the Place. In the Name of the Place covertly inserted art objects on the set of the prime-time television show Melrose Place. Chin claimed, “I realized that somewhere in those industries was where I wanted to develop this conceptual public art project. At the same time I was thinking of the virus as a paradigm for this art project. Viruses are self-replicating, but they mutate, and to me, that’s like an art idea. I was wondering, how do you get an idea into a system, and let it replicate within that system? Using the virus as a model, how could I interact with television?” “Syndicated television as a host can serve as a place for the generational transfer of an idea.” The idea to make an impression upon prime time television worked—and the project successfully placed fine art into popular culture. Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
in Los Angeles auctioned the objects with proceeds going to two educational charities.
Storefront for Art and Architecture
' is a contemporary art and architecture institution founded in 1982 in New York City.-Background:Founded in 1982 by Kyong Park, Storefront for Art and Architecture is a nonprofit organization in New York City committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design...
in New York City. Chin commissioned Kurd
Kürd
Kürd or Kyurd or Kyurt may refer to:*Kürd Eldarbəyli, Azerbaijan*Kürd Mahrızlı, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Goychay, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Jalilabad, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Qabala, Azerbaijan*Qurdbayram, Azerbaijan...
ish weavers to create a 9 foot by 23 foot carpet with patterns based on satellite telemetry. This was installed in the ceiling of one triangular room. In a second similar-shaped room, overhead monitors projected active 3-D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
mathematically-derived cloud patterns. The hand woven Turkish carpet
Turkish carpet
Turkish carpets come in distinct styles, from different regions of Turkey. Important differentiators between the types include the materials, construction and the patterns.-History:...
juxtaposed with video monitors continued Chin’s commentary of new and old digital traditions by paying homage to both. This project was a precursor to The State of Heaven (not realized). Chin envisioned a massive carpet 66 feet by 66 feet that would represent the entire atmospheric envelope with each knot equating 5 square miles (13 km²). The carpet was to be destroyed and rewoven in a constant process according to the depletion or accretion of the ozone hole. This was an attempt to make visible a phenomenon that we normally cannot see.
After a series of successful gallery and museum exhibits, Chin abandoned object making to pursue an activist, ecological artwork. He began Revival Field in 1990. As a conceptual and scientifically grounded work Revival Field was developed with the intention of green remediation and ecological consciousness. In this landscape art project, Chin, with scientist, Dr Rufus Chaney, used plants called hyperaccumulators that are known for their ability to draw heavy metals from soil. Chin’s project was located in the Pig’s Eye Landfill in St. Paul, Minnesota for three years. The project was not about the formal configuration but the conceptual realization of scientific process brought forth through art. Other Revival Field sites have been located in Palmerton, Pennsylvania
Palmerton, Pennsylvania
Palmerton is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the coal region of the state. It is a part of lower Carbon County, which is considered part of the Lehigh Valley and the greater Allentown Metropolitan Area....
and Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Germany. This project materialized science, technology and art, while not adhering to the traditional object making of art.
Chin was featured on the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
series Art21
Art21
Art:21 - Art in the 21st Century is a PBS series, educational resource, archive, and history of contemporary art. It premiered in 2001, and is now broadcast in over 50 countries worldwide. Premiering a new season every two years, Art:21 is the only series on United States television to focus...
(Art in the Twenty First Century) where his pieces S.P.A.W.N. and KNOWMAD and Revival Field were highlighted. In S.P.A.W.N. Chin planned to reclaim abandoned buildings in the city of Detroit, Michigan. He looked at neglected homes that once thrived as a starting point for community development. KNOWMAD explored persecuted cultures and used traditional tribal woven rugs in an interactive computer video game. He developed this project collaboratively with computer software engineers, with the hope of shedding light upon forgotten cultures and forgotten people.
In 2004, Mel Chin was invited as a visiting artist at East Tennessee State University
East Tennessee State University
East Tennessee State University is an accredited American university located in Johnson City, Tennessee. It is part of the Tennessee Board of Regents system of colleges and universities, the nation's sixth largest system of public education, and is the fourth largest university in the state...
. While there, he completed the W.M.D. ("Warehouse of Mass Distribution"), which was driven to Houston, Texas in May, 2005, to participate in the Houston Art Car Parade
Houston Art Car Parade
The Houston Art Car Parade is an annual event in Houston, Texas, featuring a display of all types of rolling art. The first and largest Art Car parade in the world, at any given parade spectators will see cars, bicycles, motorcycles, roller-skaters, and many other types of motorized and...
.
Station Museum of Contemporary Art
The Station Museum of Contemporary Art is a private museum devoted to contemporary art located in downtown Houston, Texas, United States. Started in 2001, the museum goal is "to encourage the public's awareness of the cultural, political, economic, and personal dimensions of art."...
held a major exhibition in Houston, Texas (2006) entitled Do Not Ask Me. Prevailing themes that run through the work selected in this exhibition include war, social injustice, modern media, and individuality. Solo exhibitions of Chin’s art have appeared the Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Minneapolis, MN, The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, Storefront for Art and Architecture
Storefront for Art and Architecture
' is a contemporary art and architecture institution founded in 1982 in New York City.-Background:Founded in 1982 by Kyong Park, Storefront for Art and Architecture is a nonprofit organization in New York City committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design...
, New York, and The Fabric Workshop and Museum
The Fabric Workshop and Museum
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., is a non-profit arts organization devoted to creating new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging, nationally, and internationally recognized artists....
, Philadelphia, PA.
In 2006 the Frederieke Taylor Gallery in New York City featured a selection of pieces from the "Do Not Ask Me" exhibit, originally shown at the Station Museum, as well as new drawings. Chin exhibited "KNOWMAD" as well as "Render" at Frederieke Taylor Gallery in 2000 and 2003.
9/11-9/11 (2006) is Chin’s first animated film. Based on a graphic novella of the same name, which he wrote in 2002, it is a fictional love story set in Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, 1973 and New York City, 2001. Chin’s film deals with the human impact of trauma and tragedy brought forth not by fate but by covert political machinations. Chin is the creator/director working with a 2-D, Chilean animation team.
Chin is compelled to make art in spite of his dark world view which is in keeping with his philosophy of “taking action as resistance to insignificance."
Mel Chin is the recipient of multiple awards including the US National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, New York State Council for the Arts, Art Matters, Creative Capital, and the Penny McCall, Pollock/Krasner, Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell was a "second generation" abstract expressionist painter. She was an essential member of the American Abstract expressionist movement, even though much of her career took place in France. Along with Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, and Helen Frankenthaler she was one of her era's few...
, Rockefeller and Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany
Louis Comfort Tiffany was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements...
Foundations and Nancy Graves
Nancy Graves
Nancy Graves was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime-filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the moon...
Foundation Award. In 2010 he won a Fellow award granted by United States Artist.
Mel Chin has also exhibited in numerous group shows including the Fifth Biennial of Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
; Seventh Architectural Biennial in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Italy; Kwangju Biennale, Korea; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near Walt Disney Concert Hall...
; the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
; and the Asian American Arts Centre
Asian American Arts Centre
The Asian American Arts Centre is a non-profit organization located in Chinatown in New York City. Founded in 1974, it was one of the earliest Asian American community organizations in the United States. The Arts Centre presents the ongoing synthesis of contemporary American and Asian art forms,...
, New York City among others.
In 2006 Mel Chin visited New Orleans after hurricane Katrina to evaluate with fellow artists creative solutions to cure the aftermath of destruction as result of the storm. Chin began Operation Paydirt to find a solution for the high lead contimination in the soil of New Orleans, a problem that existed before Katrina. To assist the funding of Operation Paydirt, the Fundred Dollar Bill Project
Fundred Dollar Bill Project
The Fundred Dollar Bill Project is a nationwide art project implemented by Mel Chin, and is aimed to connect and represent the voices of children across the United States, with the end goal to propose a funding solution for the lead contamination in the soil of New Orleans, Louisiana...
was implemented in schools across the United States to symbolically raise 300,000,000 dollars to propose to Congress for an exchange of real dollars in the Summer of 2010.
In 2010 Chin received the biennial Fritschy Culture Award from the museum Het Domein, Sittard
Sittard
Sittard is a city in the Dutch province of Limburg, which is the southernmost province of the Netherlands.On the east Sittard borders on Germany . It has some 48,400 inhabitants . Sittard is part of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen...
the Netherlands. "The jury praises the unique way in which Chin, in many of his projects, creates a form of art in which participation and other forms of engagement are key. In awarding the Fritschy Culture Award 2010 to Mel Chin, the jury members emphasize the critical engaged nature of this prize and the expression of contemporary global issues." As part of the Frtitschy Culture Award, Mel Chin exhibited a solo show at the museum Het Domein, titled "Disputed Territories".
External links
- Housing.com Video Interview with Mel Chin - February 2009
- Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips from PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
series Art:21 -- Art in the Twenty-First Century - Season 1 (2001). - Station Museum of Contemporary Art
- Recolecciones: The King Library Public Art Collections at the San José Public LibrarySan José Public LibraryThe San José Public Library is the public library system of San José, California.Its central library, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, is also the main library of the San José State University. The building of the library in 2003 was the largest single library construction project west of the...