A look at: Eleen Lin

August 3, 2022
  • Eleen Lin, Photo by Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao
    Eleen Lin, Photo by Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao

    Born in Taiwan and having grown up in Thailand with a Western education before emigrating to the United States, Eleen Lin is known for a colorful body of work that combines traditional styles and techniques with modern imagery, patterns, and textures, reiterating folklore and classical literature into contemporized cross-cultural narratives.

     

    In her long-term, ongoing series, Mythopoeia, Lin takes on Herman Melville’s classic man vs. nature chronicle, Moby Dick with a surprising twist. Inspired by a series of mistranslations of the epic novel from English into Mandarin, she combines recognizable elements of Melville’s narrative with mythological references and allusions to historical and current events, cultural artifacts, and global politics.

  • Meditation on water, 2019, Watercolor and gouache on paper
    Eleen Lin, Meditation on water, 2019, Watercolor and gouache on paper, 30 x 44 in. (76 x 112 cm)
    Lin’s process for developing new works is deliberate and multi-layered. Using watercolor, gouache, ink and pastels, she creates her initial compositions on paper. Next, she moves to oil and acrylic on canvas to create expanded versions in a larger format. In her third and final large-scale version (typically 72” x 96”), she starts by using acrylic paints almost as watercolors, laying down a wash on the canvas, followed by a detailed, oil paint rendering of her imagery. In this way, her process mirrors the complexity of her paintings, which work on multiple levels of symbolism and meaning.
  • Oil and acrylic on canvas
    Eleen Lin, Perils of life 2, 2021, Oil and acrylic on canvas

    Lin explores a variety of themes in Mythopoeia, including the many dimensions of the original Moby Dick text, and how some of its meaning was lost or transformed in the 1950s, when translators brought the novel first to mainland China, and then later to Taiwan. While this morphing process reveals a lot about the way myths and stories can be distorted when moving between different languages, cultures and political circumstances, Lin injects another layer of narrative into the work through the lens of her own experience as a third culture kid.

     

    An examination of the rich symbolism found in her surreal compositions reveals Lin’s interest in the immigrant and refugee experience, along with an intimate understanding of what it means to be an explorer, an outsider, a discoverer of new and hidden truths. Taking into account her own mixed heritage, she combines imagery, mythology, and historical references into complex and layered commentaries on modern living, cultural tropes, and social realities.

     

     

    Read more about Lin’s recent exhibition with Tammie Rubin at C24 Gallery, Mythodical, in this review in Artforum.

  • Oil and acrylic on canvas
    Eleen Lin, Rock and Roll, 2021, Oil and acrylic on canvas