Independent Artist Research Project
Chosen artist: Lin Tianmiao
Extended Response
Tianmiao’s first chosen work, Initiator, 2004 (a seminal work) displays an intriguing gathering of different threading and patterning on two figures and consists of a fairy-tale frog holding the long, Rapunzel-like hair of a standing nude maiden. The work seems to exaggerate the female figure while simultaneously speaking to new communicative pathways of expression through the medium of thread. The threads suspended between the figures link them together like lines of communication but also like strands of DNA – perhaps an allusion to concepts of childhood, innocence, imagination and/or a similar platform. Her other chosen work Endless, 2004 (Non-Zero exhibition) displays three identical sunken and bent figures of candy pink coloured polymer that are standing in a small circle facing the inner contents of a dust pile that rests between them. The work is unknown and gives away no obvious meaning other than sentiments of loss, destruction and confusion. Meaning could potentially be inferred differently for all individuals who view the work and make personal connections to their own lives.
Initiator, 2004 (Bound Unbound exhibition) is a delicately structured sculptural work unlike most traditional inventions and allows for open audience interpretation. The artist’s normally sartorial sculptures, grotesque bodies, and fibrous compositions illustrate an artist bound by cultural convention creating art unbound in technique and concept, a clear reflection of the exhibition title itself. Ultimately, many of the thread-wound objects including this sculpture are restrictive, claustrophobic, and quiet when observed individually, and yet cacophonous when taken as a whole. A crucial symbol of the work is the frog in the foreground, holding together the threads that protrude and stretch from the head of the nude maiden figure above. It represents the vital links of human nature between the conscious and subconscious realms and human beings as “inventors” or “initiators” of thought.
Endless, 2004 (Non-Zero exhibition) seems to be a continuation of Tianmiao’s thread theme as the material itself (thread) starts from “intertwining, wrapping” to “unwinding and weaving” and finally to “extending, opening” with power gradually expanding. Perhaps this significance relates to a transformative process. This can be inferred through the initial impressions of this work; three identical sunken/bent figures of candy pink coloured polymer stand in a small circle facing the inner contents of pink dust that rests between them. Perhaps the sickly figures and dust, that first seem to represent loss and confusion, represents the sands of time and prompts audience questioning such as what mental boundary is there between the elderly and young and where does the boundary between birth and death lie?
Many aspects of contemporary China such as food scares, the pollution and the politics disturb the artist immensely; Initiator (2004) is a true tribute to this. The ‘thread’ expansion of Tianmiao is self-proclaimed to be the artist’s process of constantly depicting her inner world, reflections on life and art, which creates a personal and “warm feeling”. Considered one of the leading female sculptors in China as she fashions memorable work that has to do with the female body and mind. Tianmiao recently made a practical move to a studio on the outskirts of Beijing, for the sake of space for the women who aid her labor-intensive projects.
This particular work required 10 assistants to embroider its gathering of different threading, and fabric patterning on the silken figures. Lin said during the show that this sculptural assembly is intended to evoke both female solidarity and the role women play in nurturing a child’s sensibilities amongst both Chinese and globalised society, fostering cognitive awareness as well as language skills. She was alerted to this rapport in the course of raising her own son, born in 1996. What she is concerned with is not only “material language” or “psychological structure”, but also the spreading out capabilities like “weaving webs with threads” to link many ideas in the human ecosystem within her areas of concern such as “nationality under globilisation and boy/girl gender”.
Endless (2004) displays Tianmiao’s understanding of art and life in that it gradually deepens and expands with time, a limitless and continual berth. This notion is exhibited through the figures themselves; meanwhile the vitality of “material language”, considered a unique aspect of Tianmiao’s practice, has been completely opened up by the artwork. Lin Tianmiao is not seen in global art circles as a “female” artist, but a “mature” artist concerned with a unique language of expression and this is shown through Endless as she intended it to have “no meaning, which is its real meaning”, absence and presence being considered by artistic peers as an extremely provocative and advanced concept to be exploring at such an early stage in her artistic career. Ultimately her work is about processes of transformation, thread makes the artist feel the boundaries between material and cognitive forces, but when people break these so called “threads of existence”, would things keep their true appearance? Tianmiao also heavily focuses in this and the other works in her Bound and Unbound exhibition on the boundary between men and women, and where gender expectations and conventions sit in a Chinese cultural setting. In an interview with Louise Guest she stated that she could not become an artist until she had returned to China. “It is my country, and it creates such strong feelings in me.” She likens the experience of returning to China as feeling an “intangible force that pushed her to find her own artistic vocabulary” so despite some feelings of adversity towards the country’s cultural experiences, she will always incorporate its themes into her work as they make up an aspect of her identity.
The best way to approach Tianmiao’s work is to experience it as something that moves beyond culturally specific borders. “I started without theory or concept,” she revealed during an interview in 2000. “My approach was instinctive and direct, as I responded to the experience of winding thread from my childhood.”
The installation Initiator (2004) can be found in is called Bound Unbound, which could not be a more fitting title. In Lin Tianmiao’s quest for a “thread”, she tries to “pull” lost memories back to present life - demonstrating how our previous lives can offer directions for the present life. She states in a recent interview that “thread can change the value of objects, turn useful into useless and useless into useful, gather strength, reflect gender and change identity”. This is a highly accessible notion for audiences when deconstructing what the ‘role of an artist’ refers to. It’s personal and comprehensible, Tianmiao says, “thread is a process you’re experiencing” and the same temporality applies to the process of traditional artistry as it evolves across the boundaries of time and culture.
Endless from the exhibition Non-Zero takes a rather different approach. In terms of meaning, her work speaks of the recurrent concept that what seems constant from a distance eventually reveals the subtle differences which exist within a world of opulence and diversity. “Zero” is the middle value of positive and negative value, and in this way the work itself is intended by the artist as a watershed that writes off the meaning of ’nothing’. Tianmiao reshapes the role of artist in material textuality as her transference between soft and hard (figures and the dust) evokes subtle psychological changes and makes the unexpected comment that life is always full of unexpected changing levels; the underlying notion that there doesn’t exist any predetermined boundaries in life, life just “is”.
Main Resources:
- Work 1: Initiator, 2004 (seminal work)
- Work 2: Endless, 2004 (Non-Zero exhibition)
- Subjective Frame à initial impressions of works; describe in detail
Tianmiao’s first chosen work, Initiator, 2004 (a seminal work) displays an intriguing gathering of different threading and patterning on two figures and consists of a fairy-tale frog holding the long, Rapunzel-like hair of a standing nude maiden. The work seems to exaggerate the female figure while simultaneously speaking to new communicative pathways of expression through the medium of thread. The threads suspended between the figures link them together like lines of communication but also like strands of DNA – perhaps an allusion to concepts of childhood, innocence, imagination and/or a similar platform. Her other chosen work Endless, 2004 (Non-Zero exhibition) displays three identical sunken and bent figures of candy pink coloured polymer that are standing in a small circle facing the inner contents of a dust pile that rests between them. The work is unknown and gives away no obvious meaning other than sentiments of loss, destruction and confusion. Meaning could potentially be inferred differently for all individuals who view the work and make personal connections to their own lives.
- Structural Frame à visual qualities and signs, symbols/codes used by artist to convey meaning in the works
Initiator, 2004 (Bound Unbound exhibition) is a delicately structured sculptural work unlike most traditional inventions and allows for open audience interpretation. The artist’s normally sartorial sculptures, grotesque bodies, and fibrous compositions illustrate an artist bound by cultural convention creating art unbound in technique and concept, a clear reflection of the exhibition title itself. Ultimately, many of the thread-wound objects including this sculpture are restrictive, claustrophobic, and quiet when observed individually, and yet cacophonous when taken as a whole. A crucial symbol of the work is the frog in the foreground, holding together the threads that protrude and stretch from the head of the nude maiden figure above. It represents the vital links of human nature between the conscious and subconscious realms and human beings as “inventors” or “initiators” of thought.
Endless, 2004 (Non-Zero exhibition) seems to be a continuation of Tianmiao’s thread theme as the material itself (thread) starts from “intertwining, wrapping” to “unwinding and weaving” and finally to “extending, opening” with power gradually expanding. Perhaps this significance relates to a transformative process. This can be inferred through the initial impressions of this work; three identical sunken/bent figures of candy pink coloured polymer stand in a small circle facing the inner contents of pink dust that rests between them. Perhaps the sickly figures and dust, that first seem to represent loss and confusion, represents the sands of time and prompts audience questioning such as what mental boundary is there between the elderly and young and where does the boundary between birth and death lie?
- Cultural Frame à discuss how artworks reflect the culture from which it was produced; use depth and make meaningful connections
Many aspects of contemporary China such as food scares, the pollution and the politics disturb the artist immensely; Initiator (2004) is a true tribute to this. The ‘thread’ expansion of Tianmiao is self-proclaimed to be the artist’s process of constantly depicting her inner world, reflections on life and art, which creates a personal and “warm feeling”. Considered one of the leading female sculptors in China as she fashions memorable work that has to do with the female body and mind. Tianmiao recently made a practical move to a studio on the outskirts of Beijing, for the sake of space for the women who aid her labor-intensive projects.
This particular work required 10 assistants to embroider its gathering of different threading, and fabric patterning on the silken figures. Lin said during the show that this sculptural assembly is intended to evoke both female solidarity and the role women play in nurturing a child’s sensibilities amongst both Chinese and globalised society, fostering cognitive awareness as well as language skills. She was alerted to this rapport in the course of raising her own son, born in 1996. What she is concerned with is not only “material language” or “psychological structure”, but also the spreading out capabilities like “weaving webs with threads” to link many ideas in the human ecosystem within her areas of concern such as “nationality under globilisation and boy/girl gender”.
Endless (2004) displays Tianmiao’s understanding of art and life in that it gradually deepens and expands with time, a limitless and continual berth. This notion is exhibited through the figures themselves; meanwhile the vitality of “material language”, considered a unique aspect of Tianmiao’s practice, has been completely opened up by the artwork. Lin Tianmiao is not seen in global art circles as a “female” artist, but a “mature” artist concerned with a unique language of expression and this is shown through Endless as she intended it to have “no meaning, which is its real meaning”, absence and presence being considered by artistic peers as an extremely provocative and advanced concept to be exploring at such an early stage in her artistic career. Ultimately her work is about processes of transformation, thread makes the artist feel the boundaries between material and cognitive forces, but when people break these so called “threads of existence”, would things keep their true appearance? Tianmiao also heavily focuses in this and the other works in her Bound and Unbound exhibition on the boundary between men and women, and where gender expectations and conventions sit in a Chinese cultural setting. In an interview with Louise Guest she stated that she could not become an artist until she had returned to China. “It is my country, and it creates such strong feelings in me.” She likens the experience of returning to China as feeling an “intangible force that pushed her to find her own artistic vocabulary” so despite some feelings of adversity towards the country’s cultural experiences, she will always incorporate its themes into her work as they make up an aspect of her identity.
- Postmodern Frame à explain how chosen artist has shaped understanding of different roles of artists
The best way to approach Tianmiao’s work is to experience it as something that moves beyond culturally specific borders. “I started without theory or concept,” she revealed during an interview in 2000. “My approach was instinctive and direct, as I responded to the experience of winding thread from my childhood.”
The installation Initiator (2004) can be found in is called Bound Unbound, which could not be a more fitting title. In Lin Tianmiao’s quest for a “thread”, she tries to “pull” lost memories back to present life - demonstrating how our previous lives can offer directions for the present life. She states in a recent interview that “thread can change the value of objects, turn useful into useless and useless into useful, gather strength, reflect gender and change identity”. This is a highly accessible notion for audiences when deconstructing what the ‘role of an artist’ refers to. It’s personal and comprehensible, Tianmiao says, “thread is a process you’re experiencing” and the same temporality applies to the process of traditional artistry as it evolves across the boundaries of time and culture.
Endless from the exhibition Non-Zero takes a rather different approach. In terms of meaning, her work speaks of the recurrent concept that what seems constant from a distance eventually reveals the subtle differences which exist within a world of opulence and diversity. “Zero” is the middle value of positive and negative value, and in this way the work itself is intended by the artist as a watershed that writes off the meaning of ’nothing’. Tianmiao reshapes the role of artist in material textuality as her transference between soft and hard (figures and the dust) evokes subtle psychological changes and makes the unexpected comment that life is always full of unexpected changing levels; the underlying notion that there doesn’t exist any predetermined boundaries in life, life just “is”.
Main Resources:
- http://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/articles/no-feminism-in-china-an-interview-with-lin-tianmiao/
- http://en.cafa.com.cn/lin-tianmiaos-language-of-thread-and-the-meaning.html
- http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/the-same-by-lin-tianmiao