de Sarthe Hong Kong, China
The fifth solo exhibition for Beijing- and New York-based contemporary artist Lin Jingjing, titled “Elsewhere”, features a new body of mixed media works on canvas that contemplate the collective displacement from reality caused by the near-surreal ongoing chain of global events. Integrating narratives of extraterrestrial phenomena into settings of vaguely familiar land and cityscapes, the artist constructs an alternate dimension revealed through a series of large-scale windows that line the gallery space. A poetic yet eerie speculation of the prevailing world at large, the exhibition illumines an imagined paradigm in which the boundaries of reality and unreality have seemingly dissipated – a dramatic reflection of the social, political, and technological concussions that currently reverberate around the globe.
Please Form A Straight Line
November 6th, 2020 – May 9th, 2021
Blue Star Contemporary Texas, USA
Lin Jingjing’s work was featured at Texa’s Blue Star Contemporary’s group exhibition “Please Form A Straight Line”. The exhibition is a timely, diverse, and innovative group exhibition exploring themes of collectivity, the municipal, property, architecture, and the control and regulation of bodies. It acts as a mirror to our current realities and a vehicle to process these experiences.
Lin Jingjing’s video artwork “A New Dawn for America” was projected onto New York’s Manhattan Bridge as part of the exhibition “Light Year 55” . “A New Dawn For America” introduces, for the first time in history, an AI presidential candidate. The video delivers a passionate and detailed speech given by the AI candidate, during which it tackles the most sensitive and complex of social issues and demonstrates its ability as a future leader with daring vision.
You Can Trust Me
6 November 2020 – 14 February 2021
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California, USA
Lin Jingjing’s video installation “You Can Trust Me: A New Dawn for America” was displayed at the Institute of Contemporary Art San José. In the video, an AI candidate delivers a passionate and detailed speech. The candidate explains how it will govern – taking in information, processing it, then using its mathematical computing power to calculate gains and losses prior to making choices and taking action. The AI candidate asserts that while it surpasses humans in logical reasoning and decision making, it is also untethered from biological and personality flaws and therefore exempt from personal scandals and political tyranny. It is the most reliable and trustworthy candidate to fulfill public service and civil obligations, and at the same time, satisfy the selection criteria of most voters.
Look Both Ways: The Illicit Liaison Between Image and Information
24 August 2019 – 21 September 2019
SVA Chelsea Gallery New York, USA
Lin Jinging’s work One Hundred Percent (2019) was included in the School of Visual Arts exhibition Look Both Ways: The Illicit Liaison Between Image and Information.In the installation work, Lin replaced the material description with the word fantasy in a strip of commonplace, mass-produced clothing care labels.
Look Both Ways showcased the many ways in which words, text and information influence art, design, literature and music. Bold typographic expression has become the cultural currency of communication and the centerpiece of connection. Objects and experiences all around us now contain an inscription, an impression or a point of view. Our bodies, clothing, public events, sports, politics and even the products we consume have given people, by way of social media and the Internet, an instantaneous way to communicate globally. On an intimately personal level, tattoos have assumed the atavistic power that religious amulets once had to convey messages about ourselves, with the immediate power of images and words. This dynamic is evident today in all disciplines of visual communications, reflecting the condition of our culture.
Non-Location Specific
11 July 2019 – 31 July 2019
SVA Flatiron Gallery New York, USA
Lin Jingjing’s work was featured in New York SVA Flatiron Gallery’s group exhibition “Non-location Specific”. This exhibition includes work from 15 artists who span four generations and three continents. Superficially unrelated, but in actuality, deeply engaged with one another, this cohort has spent the past nine months gathering in an online forum, sitting in front of computers and mobile devices in various cities and conversing asynchronously. Their works share common themes, including ecological concerns, technological wariness and a desire for social justice. By excluding any notion of a particular location, division, separation or border, they’ve found a way to express in universal terms.
Lov-Lov Shop
5 May 2019 – 13 July 2019
de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China
The fourth solo exhibition for Beijing- and New York- based contemporary artist Lin Jingjing, titled “Lov-Lov Shop”, is an absurd but poetic interdisciplinary project that explores the meaning and significance of humans in the age of artificial intelligence. As humanity pays for our growing greed and never-ending desires, morality is continually challenged and evaded, resulting in our collective ignorance and denial. Lov-Lov Shop opens on May 25 and runs through July 13. Using paradoxical concepts and humorous language, Lin JingJing comments on the direction of our political, cultural, and social development. Lov-Lov Shop discusses the influence of reality on how we perceive general humanity and the unease we share as a collective. The artist hopes that the pressure of living in the technological era will urge us to reconsider what it means to be human.
…… I ……
12 June 2018
Residency Unlimited, New York, USA
Curated by Ara Qiu, 「……I……」is an interactive site specific performance conceived by the Residency Unlimited artist Lin Jingjing where a group of performers read out loud and in cadence excerpts from speeches delivered by Donald Trump during his presidency where all the text has been removed except for the pronoun “I” and emphatic words such as “great” and “huge”. The rhythm of the performance is controlled by a metronome activated by the artist.「……I……」brings to the surface emerging conflicts and confusions that rise against the backdrop of current political and cultural situations. Together with the artist, performers will interact through simple and poetic body movements and vocal performance with the audience and their surroundings.「……I……」is the fourth iteration of a socially-engaged art project presented by Lin Jingjing in Beijing (Chinese version, Whitebox Art Center, 2011), Santiago (Spanish version, Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts, 2011) and Cologne (German version, Neues Kunstforum, 2012). The English version of this project is conducted during the artists’s residency at RU in New York in June 2018.
Take Off
14 September 2017 – 14 October 2017
de Sarthe Hong Kong, China
“TAKE OFF”, a multimedia solo exhibition of all new work by the Beijing- and New York-based contemporary artist Lin Jingjing. Adopting a methodology of paradox, the show discusses intrinsic uncertainty, repressed anxieties and the loss of individuality in contemporary society. Opening on 16 September the exhibition will run through 14 October. The title TAKE OFF refers to the structure of the exhibition itself, which transforms the gallery space into an international airport in the imagined nation of the People’s Republic of Dreamland (PRD). Elaborating on a theory established by the French anthropologist Marc Augé (1935-), Lin Jingjing explores the current and future ramifications of airports and their facilities as “Non-Places,” where identity as an independent individual becomes utterly insignificant. She submerges audiences into her absurdist and imagined future airport where, despite extravagances and leaps in technology, troubling reflections on our current world are laid bare. Through a carefully weaved series of connections, several of the artworks in the show function in relation to one another and collectively produce a powerfully critical narrative.
Standing by Themselves: China Now
4 May 2016 – 21 May 2016
de Sarthe Hong Kong, China
“TAKE OFF”, a multimedia solo exhibition of all new work by the Beijing- and New York-based contemporary artist Lin Jingjing. Adopting a methodology of paradox, the show discusses intrinsic uncertainty, repressed anxieties and the loss of individuality in contemporary society. Opening on 16 September the exhibition will run through 14 October. The title TAKE OFF refers to the structure of the exhibition itself, which transforms the gallery space into an international airport in the imagined nation of the People’s Republic of Dreamland (PRD). Elaborating on a theory established by the French anthropologist Marc Augé (1935-), Lin Jingjing explores the current and future ramifications of airports and their facilities as “Non-Places,” where identity as an independent individual becomes utterly insignificant. She submerges audiences into her absurdist and imagined future airport where, despite extravagances and leaps in technology, troubling reflections on our current world are laid bare. Through a carefully weaved series of connections, several of the artworks in the show function in relation to one another and collectively produce a powerfully critical narrative.
Half Sky
23 April 2016 – 8 May 2016
Red Gate Gallery Beijing, China
Lin Jingjing’s work “One Hundred Percent: Made in China Series: Predictability of Unpredictable” was featured in Beijing Red Gate Gallery’s group exhibition “Half Sky”. Inspired by Mao Zedong’s saying, ‘Women hold up half the sky’, this exhibition displays works by more than 15 female artists from mainland China, aiming to engage on a personal quest to invent and develop a visual language with which to convey the complex social realities of today’s China.
Stay Tuned
3 November – 20 November 2015
de Sarthe Hong Kong, China
“Stay tuned” is a group exhibition held by de Sarthe in Hong Kong, it showcases the works of Zhou Wendou and Lin Jingjing. Transcending boundaries of media from installation to sculpture, both artists demonstrate a variety of languages and executions. The show speaks of communication and relatedness: listening, music, reading, belonging, being connected, being on the same planet.
Tomorrow Was Wonderful
13 June 2015 – 2 August 2015
de Sarthe Beijing, China
“Tomorrow Was Wonderful” features installations alongside Lin Jingjing’s surreally-coloured canvases, allowing the viewer to lose their sense of reality and become immersed in hers, journeying through her imagination as she guides them through her interpretation of contemporary society. The title, Tomorrow Was Wonderful, suggests an idea of looking back from the future with a sense of omniscience or hindsight at these personal and national aspirations with a sense of judgment. However, Lin suggests that perhaps when we get there, we will look back on our visions and aspirations for tomorrow and see warm memories fraught with an optimistic naivety rather than a reflection of reality. This prompts us to consider this possibility not only in relation to the Chinese Dream, but also in relation to both our own lives and to history – past, present and future.
“Promise again for the first time” is the first solo exhibition of Lin Jingjing in Hong Kong. As an artist, Lin Jingjing uses her practice to reflect on social conditions and the paradoxical realities of daily life – urgently questioning the apparent “benefits” of China’s economic escalation. Lin Jingjing’s oeuvre is exemplified by her mixed media works; embroidered colorful cotton threads that impose geometric patterns over reproduced monochromatic photographs of life in China. Careful stitches conceal segments of the composition, such as the face or shadow of a human figure, seeking to address issues of homogenization and the individual morphing into a component of the economic machine. Featuring a continuum of works from the “My Promise for Your Happiness” series that Lin Jingjing conceived in 2011, the exhibition will include paintings, mixed media, video and installations.
The impetus for the artworks shown in this exhibition came from a serendipitous moment in late 2013, as Lin Jingjing disembarked from an airplane. Without provocation Lin Jingjing felt compelled to turn around as she stepped onto an aircraft access ladder only to watch the airplane roll away – leaving her on a set of stairs that lead to nowhere. This happening stood as a metaphor for upward social mobility and China’s new found prosperity to the artist, leading Lin Jinging to question the apparent fortuity of the country’s unprecedented economic growth.
The Possible of Impossible
November 2012
Neues Kunstforum Cologne, Germany
Visual artist Lin Jinjing lives in Beijing and spent 16 days in Cologne. Her works include a performance, painting, installations, and a video installation. In the exhibition space of Neue Kunstfonun, she shows works she has created in Kocht as well as works by participants who have taken part in her project.
My Promise for Your Happiness
8 April 2012 – 6 May 2012
Alexander Ochs Gallery, Hong Kong, China
“My Promise for Your Happiness” is Lin Jingjing’s solo exhibition in Beijing’s Alexander Ochs Gallery, in this exhibition, Lin Jingjing would like to provoke people to think about the paradoxical reality and the virtual illusion that we all experience in everyday lives, as well as the sense of geographical belonging and the new generation of ‘mental orphans’. Her purpose is to doubt promises and their persistence, arguing that their importance in today’s society and how we all must find the possible in the impossible through skepticism.
The Method of Paradox
2011
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes Santiago, Chile
With a career started in the world of poetry, Lin Jingjing has explored various strategies of the visual arts from drawing, painting, photography, installations, performance, coming to integrate many of them in their exhibitions in Asia, Europe and the Americas. The exhibitions presented at the Mall Plaza Vespucio in Santiago and Mall Plaza Trébol de Concepción are titled The Paradox Method, which for her is the language she uses to develop her work, posing questions to society based on the contradictions caused by confusing or painful experiences. The artist highlights the universal nature of these tribulations and the fact that everyone, regardless of our origins, will ever experience them in our lives. For Lin Jingjing, it is important that the artist not only dedicate himself to making art, but also to reflect on what he can do for society. It should not focus on the differences that divide cultures, but highlight what identifies it with the other. In these assemblies questions are raised and the public is invited to answer them in a personal way. The artist will keep these answers that will become part of her work, regardless of the mastery of the art that the viewer accepts. In this way, it will establish a correspondence with the Chilean public, a contact that constantly enriches its work and future research.
Rose Rose
October 2011
Museo sin muros-Museo Nacional de Bella Artes, Mall Plaza Trebol, Concepciń, Chile
Lin Jingjing’s empathetic method is applied to inanimate objects in her photography and performance art series, “Rose Rose”. This solo exhibition was held at Chile National Art Museum, Conception.
In the photographic series, she uses red string to stitch the petals of fresh rose buds, and presents the intricate stitches and wounds on the flower petals, demonstrated both beauty and pain, through massive, high-resolution subjective pictures. The pain alluded to in these vivid details alludes to mankind’s violent destruction and exploitation.
Lin proceeded to make six videos that show the process of the sewing of the roses in slow motion. Despite the pain immersed in the moment of piercing, the video’s colors are vibrant and sweet, again evoking a sense of paradox.
Public Memory
June 2011
Whitebox Art Museum, Beijing, China
“Public Memory″ is Linjingjing’s solo exhibition in Beijing’s White Box Art Museum. It is comprised of panel of 88 photographs, each one measuring 46 by 38 centimeters (18 by 14 3/8 inches). The photos themselves resemble black and white prints of familiar moments throughout one’s life, from current events to film stills, with various solid colors poured in to wash out the whitespace. From afar, the piece serves as a collective, somewhat blurred compilation of famous memories stored in one’s head, shaken out onto a large canvas for visual consumption.
A closer look, however, reveals a modern-day Impressionist twist, as select portions of photographic subjects are actually neatly stitched through with thread, obscured by tiny dashes forming horizontal lines. They represent the idea of how the public recalls, visualizes and even distorts memories over time, and that those fleeting events eventually succumb to color blindness and loss of detail. Internet immortality aside, there is a bit of a chilling realization when one deduces that this inability to remember 100 percent of publicly-known events could also figure into private personal experiences as time passes.
I Want to be With You Forever
14 November 2009 – 14 December 2009
Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China
“I Want to be With You Forever” is held in Beijing’s Songzhuang Art Museum.”In the group photo of women being symbolized in society, the absence of women makes the relationship between women and society appear more cramped. The ‘vacancy’ makes hugging and snuggling lead to indifference, morbidity, disorder, falsification, and no belonging. I’m still fascinated by the dynamic desire that hides in this static presentation, the almost neurotic desire to be disintegrated bit by bit, like a silent burning tobacco leaf… I like this seemingly paradoxical dilemma, or rather, I linger because I see and think about this predicament. “, as Lin Jingjing said.