LIN Yen Wei

A lot of us remember those animal statues from our childhoods, made on a real-life scale. It seems that they once flashed through our memories, but their faces were unclear, and what we really recall is that feeling of closeness and familiarity. But, over time, their closeness and familiarity have disappeared. Looking at them again, LIN finds an air of strangeness as they smile apologetically from that space they now inappropriately inhabit. Their smiles have not diminished, but time has added a layer of wear and weariness, which sardonically highlights the helplessness and paradox of their existence.

LIN’s painting series of such statues as well as toys. The works follow the same sequence of thought regarding images, painting, and LIN’s investigation of the continuums inhabited by these talismanic objects. Those continuums are ambiguous, located between what is real and what is false, between present and past, and between our uncertainties about our experience. An unusual feeling of distance now surrounds those toys and statues, once they’ve been bizarrely decorated by a third party, along with the extra surrealism of photography and the narratives of painting. That distance signals us that another kind of real existence is there for them, once their original reality has been rewritten and reworked.

"I think the composition of the portrait is enclosed yet full of possibilities. It can reveal the soul and temperament of the subject. At the same time I use the approach of still life painting, mainly to observe the three-dimensionality and texture of the subject, including the temporality shown on its weathered body. These characteristics allow me to create portraits in the way of still life paintings. It’s ideal because it embodies both elements." -- LIN Yen Wei

"Sculptures themselves are an awkward existence. It’s like a photographed moment that is brought to life. It’s like when you watch a movie and suddenly the image freezes. It’s awkward…the face can even be ugly. These sculptures are created and erected at a place. That is the kind of existence I want to bring back to photography." -- LIN Yen Wei

"My subjects are painted larger than life because I want to amplify the mental distance between them and the audience. The sheer size creates a sense of unrest and oppression, while the “micro-perspective” allows a different viewing experience that is what Bertolt Brecht (1898~1956) called the 'defamiliarization effect'." -- LIN Yen Wei

"Unfamiliarity is a concept of relativity. Today, photography can defamiliarize things you are familiar with through perspective, color, size and exposure to generate a new visual experience. This is what photography is capable of, defamiliarization. You can also familiarize things that are unfamiliar and unreachable, such as pictures of celebrities, or scenery photos of places you’ve never been to. You might actually feel strange when seeing them with your own eyes. This capacity of photography to create understanding is something very important in my paintings. It allows the subject to withdraw from itself to a certain extent, and then I’d use painting to reinforce this withdrawal, which is akin to translation or a remake." -- LIN Yen Wei