Lin’s richly tactile installation meditates on the upheavals of 2020, drawing on complex material histories and speculative multispecies narratives

This book chronicles the creation of a newly commissioned body of work by Los Angeles–based artist Candice Lin (born 1979) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lin often investigates the legacies of colonialism by tracing the material histories of goods that circulated within global trade routes. For her Walker Art Center and Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts project, the artist brings together hand-dyed indigo textiles, plaster sculptures to be touched by visitors, large-scale ceramics partially inspired by Chinese tomb guardians and a hallucinogenic video featuring dancing cats and spam texts. Taken together, this multipart installation addresses the anxiety, isolation, fear and anger of this tragic year of pandemic and social upheaval, emphasizing touch, intimacy and a collective questioning of our precarious present and future.
Texts explore Lin’s innovative use of materials and mediums and the theoretical frameworks that animate her art. A fully illustrated plates section documents the artist’s process of research, making and installation, and an annotated selection of Lin’s major past exhibitions provides important context for works made over the last decade.

Visual artist(s): Candice Lin
Text by: Julia Bryan-Wilson, Mel Y. Chen, Liv Porte