Lin Yan: No Return was first presented in Art Basel Hong Kong this May and Leo Gallery is bringing this exhibition to our Hong Kong space in SOHO 189 this July coinciding Central West, an art programme in which galleries across Central Western district organise events and performances that showcase both local and international artistic talents on a regular basis.
Lin Yan is internationally recognised for her site-specific installations, sculptures, and two-dimensional works made of various Chinese handmade paper. Since the past decade, Lin has been employing Xuan paper to bring out the essence, depth, and complexities of this traditional medium, particularly to illustrate its associated Eastern aesthetics and philosophy in the contemporary context. The diverse representations of materiality are of paramount importance for the artist. Lin’s meditative works poetically reveal the textural and painterly qualities of her creative process by crumbling, folding, layering, mounting, and casting the Xuan paper, and often executed either without colour or with dark ink.
In early 2017, the artist started to create a new series named after the Big Dipper called Regeneration of Hope. The works are presented as site-specific installations and are located in various cities globally, commenting on the everlasting global warming and environmental deterioration. Life and death have become an eerily intimate topic during the trying times of the worldwide pandemic. It is in this vein that Lin creates the installation “Megrez II - No Return” (2021), which depicts the essential components of the living ecosystem as well as the unity between nature, humanity, and the universe. Therefore, Lin’s work opens a contemplative portal for the viewer to delve into the world of inner peace by appreciating its splendid imagery, structure, and lyricism.
If you miss the chance to see Lin Yan's work in Art Basel Hong Kong, please come and visit the exhibition before 18 September 2021.
