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Michael Ming Hong LIN
Taiwan b.1964
 The artist preparing Gallery 5 wall, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 Queensland Art Gallery Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
Michael Ming Hong Lin’s art plays with architectural spaces. Exaggeration and visual exuberance characterise this artist’s practice, and the sheer size of his site-specific works creates transformations within the buildings in which he works. The viewer’s experience of walking through familiar spaces is altered by Lin’s brightly coloured, amplified patterns. The spectacular nature of Lin’s practice ensures that the visitor’s relationship to the physical space of the Gallery is renewed.
More information about the artist
 Taiwanese fabric, source for Gallery 5 wall, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 Collection: The artist |
 Michael Ming Hong Lin Gallery 5 wall, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 (detail) 2002 Site-specific work Synthetic polymer paint on plywood fixed to the wall Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 Queensland Art Gallery Collection: The artist Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
Michael Lin sources his patterns from textiles found in Taiwanese homes, such as bed-covers and pillows traditionally made by women. The textiles typically feature flowers and foliage derived in part from ancient Chinese and Japanese designs. Lin juxtaposes such everyday, homely fabrics with the monumental, authoritarian architecture of the public museum space. Lin has explained his personal relationship to these patterns:
‘I often spent time in the countryside with my grandfather when I was young. I still remember such textiles being used for bedding as women’s dowry; to me they also mark an age when Taiwan was transferring from handcrafted modes of production to industrial production, from rural to urban.’ (1)
 Team of assistants drawing the panels for Gallery 5 wall, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 Queensland Art Gallery Photograph: Natasha Harth |
 Team of assistants painting the panels for Gallery 5 wall, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 Queensland Art Gallery Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
 Team of assistants installing the panels for Gallery 5 wall, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 Queensland Art Gallery Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
 Michael Ming Hong Lin Gallery 5 wall, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 Site-specific work Synthetic polymer paint on plywood fixed to the wall Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 Queensland Art Gallery Collection: The artist Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
Works such as Gallery 5 wall, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 and Bar Merlo, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 are created on a very large scale. Despite this, Lin rejects the use of mass production. To realise these two paintings, he enlisted the help of a team of 85 volunteer assistants who took part in the laborious and painstaking process of making the works. Lin’s designs were firstly projected onto a series of wooden panels and traced in pencil, before being hand painted. Next, the panels were fitted together and installed across the walls. Finally, the joins between the panels were puttied and repainted to create a seamless effect.
 Michael Ming Hong Lin Bar Merlo, QAG 09.12.02 – 01.27.03 2002 Site-specific work Synthetic polymer paint on plywood fixed to the wall Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 2002 Queensland Art Gallery Collection: The artist Photograph: Matthew Kassay |
Lin likes to position his works in transitional zones and has selected the Gallery café, Bar Merlo, as one such area. A café is a space in which people relax, read, eat and watch other people. It is a space through which people are continually coming and going — it isn’t a space usually associated with high art.
1. Michael Ming Hong Lin, interview with Amy Cheng, The gravity of the immaterial [exhibition catalogue], Cultural Affairs Bureau of Taipei, Taipei, p.107; amended by artist in email correspondence with Rhana Devenport, 29 May 2002.
List of works in APT 2002
Artists and Works
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