Seeing Shadow No. 20
- Lin Tianmiao, Chinese, 1961
- Born: Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China
- Work Locations: Beijing, China
© Lin Tianmiao
Working in a wide range of media from performance and handmade paper to photo-installation, Lin Tianmiao explores issues surrounding identity, contemporary Chinese culture, and feminism. Lin successfully plays with juxtaposition in almost all of her works, playing strong-armed political ideas against delicate and vulnerable materials, including silk thread.
The artist’s “Seeing Shadow” series serves as photographic documentation as well as social commentary on the effects of modernization in China. For “Seeing Shadow No. 20,” Lin used thousands of strands of silk to embroider photographs of hutongs, traditional courtyard residences that are rapidly being demolished in the name of modernization. Just like the hutongs, the traditional artisanship of silk work is disappearing from China’s cultural identity. The embroidered images of hutongs confront the viewer with the question: What is the value of tradition? Although she does not use silk in a traditional way, Lin’s work nevertheless communicates a sense of nostalgia for practices and places that are disappearing in modern society.
Lin graduated from the Capital Normal University, Beijing, China in 1984 and later studied at the Art Students League, New York.
- "Material World"—Denver Art Museum [05/19-/2013 - 01/04/2015]
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