Chris
Lin is a Chicago-based installation artist whose work is primarily
consisted of cardboard sculpture, video, and performance. He has shown
extensively in Chicago and Western Canada. He also writes and performs
with his collaborators Ryan Richey and Kayce Bayer as Hannis Pannis
and Jacques Hammer and Wanda Drug.
News
Statement
“It
seems I'm filming my life in order to have a life to film, like some
primitive organism that somehow nourishes itself by devouring itself,
growing as it diminishes.”
“I’ve got your memories / or has it got
me? / I really don’t know / but I know / it won’t let me be.”
-- Patsy Cline
We
become spectators of our own lives. Sometime in the previous century,
scientists theorized that memories are not fixed entities, but instead
they are recontextualized and changed by the present moment. Therefore,
each time we recall the past, the more detached we are from the actual
event. The role of spectator allows us to be removed from the minutiae
and nuances of everyday life, providing space for reassessment of
values and reconciliation with the past.
Referencing
personal narrative, I use themes of healing and catharsis in my studio
practice. My work often begins as an objective examination of things
that are absent from my life and followed by the mass production of
surrogates for them, which helps to distract myself from the hardships
of the day-to-day, including guilt, heartache, loneliness, and/or ear
infections. This process induces moments of temporary happiness, which,
in time, snowballs into a permanent fix.
I dig
into my immediate past for much of the inspiration and source
materials. Mementoes, films, narrative music, and aspects of my
personal history that make me happy are sampled prominently or adopted
as the style of my work. By referencing the familiar and exalting the
ordinary, I facilitate an intimate and empathetic experience.