Sky 2
Lin Yan
林延
Production date
2016
Object Detail
Media
ink, xuan paper
Measurements
330 x 1600 x 520 cm
Notes
Lin Yan pleats, drapes, folds, sheaves, crumples, cuts and layers the soft handmade xuan and mulberry papers. Sometimes stained, even saturated, with black ink, her works remind us that ink and paper are the essential Chinese materials for both art and writing. First made during the Tang Dynasty, used by both painters and calligraphers, the long history of xuan paper evokes Chinese identity. The paper drapery in her work Sky 2 (2016) shifts gently in every current of air that moves through the gallery space, as if breathing. Overhead, however, the soft, hollow forms of paper stained with black ink loom like storm clouds: crumpled, twisted ink-stained paper forms, evoking the lowering grey skies of polluted Chinese cities, float, suspended by fragile threads. These simple forms and minimalist methods reveal Lin’s attention to Daoist precepts. The balancing forces of yin and yang are present in Sky 2, as in all her work: simple yet also complex, transparent yet opaque, strong yet delicate, melancholy yet hopeful. Lin Yan brings together apparently contradictory elements of black and white, transparency and opacity, solid and void; in her hands, however, the boundaries between them appear to dissolve.
Accession number
2016.194