Mel Chin

Also in this exhibition were three major pieces with political content; The Extraction of Plenty from What Remains: 1823- (1989) is composed of two replicated White House columns that squeeze a cornucopia hand-crafted of mahogany, banana, mud, coffee, and goats’ blood.

In this artwork Chin reacted to the long history of American foreign policy that has fractured the ability of Latin American countries to prosper on their own.

The date in the title 1823-(ongoing) is in reference to the Monroe Doctrine.

Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, the work was based on a Gustave Doré engraving depicting Myrrha in the 30th canto of Hell from Dante’s Inferno.

Mel Chin (born 1951 in Houston, Texas, USA) is a conceptual visual artist.

Motivated largely by political, cultural, and social circumstances, Chin works in a variety of art media to calculate meaning in modern life.

Chin places art in landscapes, in public spaces, and in gallery and museum exhibitions, but his work is not limited to specific venues.

Chin once stated: “Making objects and marks is also about making possibilities, making choices—and that is one of the last freedoms we have.

To provide that is one of the functions of art.”

In 1975, Chin graduated from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee.

Shortly after, in 1976, Chin created See/Saw: The Earthworks for Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, where the artist manipulated two sections of the park's surface to create a kinetic, minimalist earthwork.

In this mimic of a childhood pastime, Chin altered the landscape with an underground hydraulic device that allowed the participants to shift large sections of earth with their body weight.

The title also questions the psychological perception of what is above and below a certain object's surface.

This piece addressed three of the major art trends of the time: minimalism, conceptualism, and earthworks.

In 1983, Chin moved to New York City.

He created MYRRHA P.I.A. (Post Industrial Age) (1984), site specific to Bryant Park.

The Sigh of the True Cross (1988) is based on a single string Ethiopian masinqo, or spike fiddle.

Chin compounds the iconography of the musical instrument and the hammer and sickle to comment on famine, drought, failed politics, and foreign aid in the history of Ethiopia.

The Opera of Silence (1988) is also complex and layered with meaning.

An oversized Beijing opera drum rests on a staff made of human thigh bone, and the drum skins are woven into the emblem of the C.I.A. commenting on the interrelations of China, Tibet, and the C.I.A..

Chin conceptually developed the GALA Committee for the project called In the Name of the Place.

In the Name of the Place covertly inserted art objects on the set of the prime-time television series Melrose Place.

Chin claimed, “I realized that somewhere in those industries was where I wanted to develop this conceptual public art project.

At the same time I was thinking of the virus as a paradigm for this art project.

Viruses are self-replicating, but they mutate, and to me, that's like an art idea.

I was wondering, how do you get an idea into a system, and let it replicate within that system?

Using the virus as a model, how could I interact with television?” “Syndicated television as a host can serve as a place for the generational transfer of an idea.” The idea to make an impression upon prime time television worked—and the project successfully placed fine art into popular culture.

Sotheby's in Los Angeles auctioned the objects with proceeds going to two educational charities.

In 1989, Chin had a one-person exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. In The Operation of the Sun through the Cult of the Hand (1987), Chin addressed ancient Greek philosophy and Chinese philosophy.

He investigated mythological constructions, and scientific information to contradict personal interpretations in the formulations of these works.

Chin used nine planets of the solar system to launch this elaborate construction.

The installation comments on the origins of word material and form from East and West by drawing upon mythology, alchemy, and science in each culture.

In 1992, Chin created Degrees of Paradise to be shown at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City.

Chin commissioned Kurdish weavers to create a 9 foot by 23 foot carpet with patterns based on satellite telemetry.

This was installed in the ceiling of one triangular room.

In a second similar-shaped room, overhead monitors projected active 3-D mathematically derived cloud patterns.

The hand woven Turkish carpet juxtaposed with video monitors continued Chin's commentary of new and old digital traditions by paying homage to both.

This project was a precursor to The State of Heaven (not realized).

Chin envisioned a massive carpet 66 feet by 66 feet that would represent the entire atmospheric envelope with each knot equating 5 sqmi.

Chin created a three-dimensional figurative sculpture employing 19th century fabrication techniques, conjoined with space-age materials.