Leila Heller Gallery in Dubai is hosting the solo exhibition of artist Lin Jingjing which is titled Elsewhere. The show will run through April 30, 2023.
The exhibition features Lin’s series of large scaled artworks made of silk thread, acrylic paint, and archival pigment print on canvas. They depict solitary figures, some in futuristic clothes, standing at the windows and watching UFOs fly in the skies over vaguely familiar city- and landscapes.
Lin began to create the displayed art pieces during the COVID-19 pandemic. What was happening at the global level felt surreal; it made her reflect upon the situation we were living in. In the exhibited series, she explores society’s displacement from reality because of those global events. When one was forced to stay indoors due to the quarantine, windows became a main portal of connecting to the physical world outside. In Lin’s artworks, the people looking outside of the window serve as a metaphor for how the perception changes when one is in such a situation.
In her work, Lin examines the effects of technologies on society. The UFOs and space capsules in her works represent the invasion of technology in all aspects of our life, which is more noticeable in such turbulent times as the pandemic. Lin thinks our pre-existing concepts of reality are being redefined by the never-ending technological advancement. On one hand, things that once seemed purely out of sci-fi books (for instance, drones or electronic currency) have become a part of our everyday life. On the other hand, social technology (virtual meeting rooms and social media) are now completely integrated into reality — to the extent that we live more online than in the real world.
Being phenomenal but strangely familiar, Lin’s images correspond to the paradoxical change in our perception of reality. Through the windows depicted by the artist, we see the alternate universe where fact and fiction are almost identical; she shows us infinite possibilities in a world without the anchors of reality.
About the artist
Jingjing Lin (b. 1970, Shanghai, China) is a multidisciplinary artist who resides in New York, USA. Her artistic practice includes painting, drawing, performance, installation, photography, video, and using mixed media, sound, and light. In 1992, she received her BFA degree from Fujian University (Fuzhou, China); in 2020, she graduated from School of Visual Arts (New York, USA) with an MFA degree.
In her art, Jingjing explores social and personal identity in the context of modern society; she deals with such themes as confusion and quest, existence and absence, constraint and resistance. The artist is particularly focused on how individuals define themselves amongst the effects of the outside world, culture, politics, history, and economy.
Lin has her art displayed in numerous solo and group exhibitions both in China and abroad: You Can Trust Me, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California, USA (2020); Lov-Lov Shop, de Sarthe, Hong Kong, China (2019); ……I……, Residency Unlimited (RU), New York, USA (2018); Take Off, de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2017); Tomorrow Was Wonderful, de Sarthe Gallery, Beijing, China (2015); Herold/Künstlerhaus Güterabfertigung, Bremen, Germany (2014); Entangled Particles: Four Contemporary Chinese Artists, Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, Halifax, Canada (2013); First Biennale Italy-China, Villa Reale Di Monza, Italy (2012); and many others.
Lin’s works can be found in multiple public and private collections, such as He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China; Institut Valencia d’Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain; Museo de la Nación, Lima, Peru; The Mountain Group Museum, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and others.
To learn more about the Elsewhere exhibition, please visit its official web page.
You might be interested in visiting Architectures of Excess by Amba Sayal-Bennett
