Lin YiHsuan: Straw

Each Modern is pleased to announce ”Straw,” a solo exhibition by Taiwanese artist Lin YiHsuan, presenting the artist’s latest works since 2017. Expanding to various materials like canvas, oil on paper, and colored stones, the new works focus on exploring the essence of painting: line, surface, and artisticity. The exhibition expresses his belief in painting in a reactionist way. In 2017, Lin YiHsuan returned to Taiwan from Latin America, where he resides, to stay with his family in Yilan after his father’s passing. During this period, the emerging horizontal lines present in his work indicates an affiliation with a regained sense of home, which compelled him to explore lines. The interest continued through to the summer of 2018, during a visit to Europe, and approached something of an integrated agitation after reencountering the works of Post-impressionism: why and how do colors become more crucial? Why and how do shapes become more crucial? Why and how do emotions become more crucial? “I always try to avoid discussing painting from the view of subject-matter and that is the reason why I left the academic system of Taiwan. For example, I developed graffiti in the beginning due to its integrative and freedom, instead of its connection to society. You are able to paint on paper, paint on the wall, paint on the floor, and use all kinds of materials – in fact, my painting was always stating the method before I moved to Brazil. Indeed, the travel experience in Lain America makes my work primarily focused on those backgrounds. But actually, it doesn't matter. My painting is always about ‘how to paint’. I felt this more, especially after my trip to Europe. Post-impressionism fascinates, it is closer to what I tend to paint. I am specifically interested in the outlines, the colors, and the paint. Sometimes I ask myself why should I continue to paint? It is because I like the feeling of fullness with paint, and all thinking and technique that could be possibly comprehended.” said Lin YiHsuan in a recent interview. From the mosquitos of his early works to the current bats, eyes, straws, flags, and text, he maximally transforms the objects that he encounters in his life. For instance, the bats are now ties, sugar coating, and aircraft; the eyes from a comic figure are now buttons, gyres and stars. Lin YiHsuan does not give up on shapes, he consistently apposes them in space, and the influence from Matisse can be observed: the surface is important. Obviously, they are mostly on the surface. They now exist in an extremely thin space, a space that returns to line and color. The three large works titled “Straw” seem like an emphasis on the natural language of shapes within Lin YiHsuan’s subconsciousness. This language is gradually completed by his past and his life experience from the last two years. For an artist like Lin YiHsuan, his ideal struggle is seeking creativity, yet literature is the calm and self-exiling means of balancing his sensitivity. Through “Straw”, he inscribes a poem “Dew” by an American poet Kay Ryan; in spite of this he claims his painting are still landscapes.