Mel Chin

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Mel Chin
Peabody College
Known forEnvironmental art
Social practice art
Installation art
Notable workRevival Field
AwardsMacArthur Foundation Grant
Guggenheim Grant

Mel Chin (born 1951 in

Houston, Texas, USA) is a conceptual 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.” [1]

Career

1970s-1980s

See/Saw: The Earthworks, 1976

In 1975, Chin graduated from

earthworks
.

'The Manila Palm', sculpture by Mel Chin, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 1978

In 1983, Chin moved to New York City. He created MYRRHA P.I.A. (Post Industrial Age) (1984), site specific to

Dante’s Inferno
. 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

. 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

C.I.A. commenting on the interrelations of China, Tibet
, and the C.I.A..

Chin conceptually developed the

prime-time television series 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?” [3]“Syndicated television as a host can serve as a place for the generational transfer of an idea.” [4] The idea to make an impression upon prime time television worked—and the project successfully placed fine art into popular culture. Sotheby's
in Los Angeles auctioned the objects with proceeds going to two educational charities.

1990s-2000s

Degrees of Paradise, 1992

In 1992, Chin created Degrees of Paradise to be shown at the

Turkish carpet
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

St. Paul, Minnesota for three years. Plot markers were placed to identify the individual plots. Inside them were Zinc, Copper, and Lead, all containing the correct ratios of the amount of metal in the soil. 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 and Stuttgart, Germany. This project materialized science, technology and art, while not adhering to the traditional object making of art.[5]

Blueprints at Addison Circle is a steel sculpture located in Addison, Texas designed in conjunction landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh dedicated on April 13, 2000.[6][7]

Chin was featured on the

Art:21 - Art in the 21st 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. 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.

Our Strange Flower of Democracy, 2005

The

, 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
, 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.

In 2008 Chin proposed the idea of CLI- mate (climate linked individual- mate). CLI- mate is an app that is accessible in any language and free for its users. The idea is that it will personalize anyone's relationship with climate change. Users input their daily habits, the app combines their information with every single users and it calculates their impact on the planet. Users will be able to combine their faces with the worlds. The app is missing information on climate changes.[8]

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."[4]

Mel Chin has also exhibited in numerous group shows including the Fifth Biennial of

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center; Museum of Modern Art; and the Asian American Arts Centre
, 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 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.

2010s-Present

Chin has been included in the Asian American Arts Centre's art Asia America digital archive.[9] In 2018, Chin created work for Philadelphia Contemporary's Festival for the People, that also included works by artists Michel Auder, Erlin Geffrard and Rikrit Tiravanija.[10]

Mel Chin's work was featured in the Spirit in the Land exhibition and catalog presented by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and published by Duke University Press, respectively, in 2023. In 2024, the exhibition is traveling to the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida.[11][12][13]

Awards

Mel Chin is the recipient of multiple awards including the US

New York State Council for the Arts, Art Matters, Creative Capital, and the Penny McCall, Pollock/Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Rockefeller and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundations and Nancy Graves Foundation Award. He was a 2013 Artist-in-Residence at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, NC.[14] In 2010 he won a Fellow award granted by United States Artists.[15]
In 2010 Chin received the biennial Fritschy Culture Award from the museum Het Domein, Sittard 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."[16] As part of the Fritschy Culture Award, Mel Chin exhibited a solo show at the museum Het Domein, titled "Disputed Territories".

References

  1. ^ Ned Rifkin. Directions: Mel Chin, February 1- April 23, 1989. Hishorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Brochure, 1989.
  2. ^ Anderson, Susan Heller; Bird, David (August 14, 1984). "The See-Through Woman Of Bryant Park". New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2011.
  3. ^ Tom Finkelpearl.Interview: Mel Chin on Revival Field, in Dialogues in Public Art, Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000.
  4. ^ a b Interview with artist, 2006.
  5. ^ "Plot Marker, used in Revival Field – mel chin". melchin.org.
  6. ^ Emam, Hoda. "6 Ways to Absorb Addison, Texas' Arts and Culture". Atlas Obscura.
  7. ^ "The "Blueprints" steel sculpture in Addison Circle, an urban park in Addison, Texas, a Dallas suburb". Library of Congress. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  8. ^ "CLI-Mate – mel chin". melchin.org.
  9. ^ "Chin, Mel - Profile - artasiamerica - A Digital Archive for Asian / Asian American Contemporary Art History". artasiamerica.org.
  10. ^ Jia, Olivia (2018-10-26). "Philadelphia's "Festival for the People" Is Short on Locals". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2019-04-08.
  11. ^ "Spirit in the Land". Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  12. ^ "Spirit in the Land • Pérez Art Museum Miami". Pérez Art Museum Miami. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  13. .
  14. ^ Mel Chin brings The Fundred Project to Charlotte Knight Foundation, October 2, 2012
  15. ^ United States Artists Official Website Archived November 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Official Website [1]

External links