Bio
Hai-Wen Lin is a Taiwanese-American artist whose work explores constructions of the body and its surrounding environment. They are an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, a MacDowell fellow, a LeRoy Neiman Fellow at the Ox-Bow School of Art, and earned a Master of Design in Fashion, Body and Garment from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where they were selected as a Fashion Future Graduate by the CFDA upon graduating. Lin has published research on smart textiles and taught workshops at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and MIT. They have performed publicly at the Chicago Cultural Center and MU Gallery, and have exhibited work in a variety of places including the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, 3S Artspace in New Hampshire, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, the walls of their home, their friend’s home, on a plate, on a lake, and in the sky.
Friends
in collaboration, in admiration
Artist Statement
This is a practice that walks the motions of daily life and invites the company of naturally occurring phenomena. It is an act of reorienting, an attempt to attune one’s body to the environment, to unsettle static markers of identity, to offer instead the wind, sun, and sky as constantly shifting relational anchors to gather and situate oneself. Diasporic experiences and transness share this in common: they are experiences of being unmoored, of finding home in transit, of living within betweens. Kites adopt the language of garment construction and patternmaking as a means of understanding how to free, fly, and extend the body. Kiteflying is the casting of a wish; it is a gesture towards a liberatory future while standing in the present. This is a practice of being present, of attention and gratitude. Thank you for finding me here. Thank you for noticing.
Links / Resources
observing, reading, listening, giving attention,