Lin Yan: Gateway 林延：门道

For Fou Gallery’s new exhibition Lin Yan: Gateway, Lin creates a total environment with ink and Xuan paper (Xuanzhi, or rice paper), representing the architectural elements of the early 20th century brownstone apartment of the gallery. Lin molds the architectural features out of ink and Xuan paper in the parlor room such as foliated moldings surrounding the windows, an embellished radiator, a hollowed-out fireplace, ornamental details of the ceiling, and a double door––the gateway to the gallery. Sculpted paper paintings will be installed in juxtaposition with this portal and the space’s windows. Negative spaces enclosed in these crafted paper become filled with spirituality awakened by natural and artificial lights. Lin changes our relationships with ordinary objects and enriches our everyday realities with art.

在否画廊的新展《林延：门道》中，林延呈现了一个整体的建筑空间。她在这栋二十世纪早期建成的经典褐石建筑内现场创作，用宣纸和墨翻铸了客厅（Parlor Room）原始的建筑结构和细节——包括法式窗门、雕花暖气片、天花板的内饰等，再创作出具有建筑特性的装置与绘画雕塑。它们悬挂于真实的门窗前，构建成一个虚实交错的空间，创造出一个超越日常经验的艺术空间。

Gateway 门道，2017

Casted from the double door––the gateway to the gallery, Gateway is the central piece of the exhibition. In August 2017, Lin Yan came to the gallery to mold the gate with Xuan paper of different layers and textures. The work is installed in juxtaposition with the real gate. In Chinese proverbs, the word “gateway” refers to approaches and procedures for accomplishing a mission, usually indicating wisdoms learned from everyday experience. Various English versions of Tao Te Ching (D. C. Lau, 1963; Tam C. Gibbs, 1981; John R. Leebrick, 1980) use the word “gateway” to indicate the pathway of the Essential and the approach to all indescribable marvels. Similarly, Lin’s art is rooted in her encounters with daily life, but transcends the reality with multiple layers of interpretation, including respect towards traditional culture, the mourning of cultural breakage, concern about environmental devastation, and the response to drastic social changes. Combining the physical texture of the gate and the abstract vision of the pathway, Lin encompasses a gateway of the wonderful essence in arts and life.

用Parlor Room的大门拓印而成，《门道》是本次展览的核心作品。用不同的手工纸做成的大门，与真实的大门并置在一起，一实一虚，将展厅自然地分割出来。中国传统俗语里的“门道”指做事的门路和方法，通常是从日常生活经验中总结而来。英文标题（Gateway）则来自不同英文版本的《道德经》（D. C. Lau, 1963; Tam C. Gibbs, 1981; John R. Leebrick, 1980），表明通往未知玄妙的门径。与此相同，林延的作品来自于对日常生活的深刻关注，而又释放出包罗万象的意蕴，既有对传统文化的追思，对文化断裂的伤痛，对环境污染的担忧，对经济社会转型的关注，又有对极简主义、建筑美学、正负空间、阴阳哲学的探索。门和道，一为实，一为虚，而林延将两者结合起来，在生活和艺术之中寻找智慧之路。

Borrowed Scene 取景，2017

Borrowed Scene is molded from the window decorations of this brownstone building, hanging between two floor-to-ceiling ambries. The title is inspired by “borrowed scenery” - the principle of "incorporating background landscape into the composition of a garden" found in traditional East Asian garden design. This could mean using scenes outside the garden, such as a view of distant mountains or the trees in the neighboring garden, to create the illusion that garden was much bigger than it was.

《取景》由这栋褐石建筑的窗饰拓印而成，悬挂于落地橱柜之间。作品标题《取景》来自中国古典园林建筑术语，将园外景象引入并与园内景象相叠合的造园手法，弥补了空间尺度小的缺憾，取景自然，以求得渐入佳境、小中见大、步移景异的理想境界。

Jetlag and Temperature Difference 时差与温差, 2017

Jetlag and Temperature Difference are created with two vintage radiators at Fou Gallery. Temperature Difference is connected to the large radiator by a light tube while Jetlag molds the architectural elements out of the top of a small radiator which has seven grids symbolizing seven days. When installing for the exhibition, Lin Yan uses 12 black lines and nails to link the Jetlag with the railing of the spiral staircase, just like 12 hours. As a world citizen, Lin Yan often travels and exhibits around the world, jetlag is a common condition of her life.

《时差》和《温差》用否画廊空间里的两个老式暖气片创作。《温差》与大暖气片通过一根灯管相连，《时差》由小暖气片的顶部拓印而成，正好七格，象征7天，林延布展时用12条黑线将《时差》和旋转楼梯的栏杆联系在一起，配上黑色钉子，像是12小时。作为一个世界公民，林延常在世界各地穿梭，举办展览，倒时差是生活的常态。

静吟 Silent Song, 2014-2017

Silent Song is 4-meter long, dangling from carved ceilings, and a portion of it is directly printed on the carved parts of the ceiling, making the building itself part of the work. The creation of Silent Song began in 2014. In 2014, Lin Yan created a site-specific work Fault for the exhibition "Double Vision: The Culture China Overseas Chinese Women’s Invitational Exhibition" in He Xiangning Art Museum. In the open corridor of the exhibition hall, a group of Xuan paper are stacked, folded, stretched and stamped with stumps of different thicknesses, while the other group of Xuan paper is stacked in layers to form an immersive installation that people can walk in. Part of Silent Song comes from Fault , Lin Yan also adds rubbing of stumps created in New York and Beijing.

《静吟》长达四米，从雕花天花板垂下，一部分直接拓印在天花板的雕花部分上，使得建筑本身成为作品的一部分。《静吟》的创作长达四年，最早开始于2014年。2014年，林延为何香凝美术馆的群展《重瞳体———文化中国·海外华人女性艺术家邀请展》创作了一件场地特域作品《断层》，在展厅的开放式过道中，一组宣纸被堆叠、褶皱、拉伸，拓印着粗细各异的树桩横截面，另一组宣纸则层叠平铺，形成了一个可以走入的浮雕装置。《静吟》的一部分来自于《断层》的局部，林延又加入一些在纽约、北京等地创作的树木横截面拓印，最终构成了这件长卷。

Gateway 2 门道2 , 2017

Gateway 2 was created in a fireplace that is no longer in use. Layers of Xuan paper grow out of the the copper-plated ornamental fireplace screen.

《门道2》在一个不再使用的壁炉中创作，不同层次的白色宣纸从雕花的壁炉铁门中生长出来。

Between Day and Night #1 日夜之间1, 2014-2017

Between Day and Night #1 was created for Lin Yan’s solo exhibition at Officina foundation in Brussels in 2015. The work is casted from the stumps of a fallen tree in the Sandy hurricane that swept New York in 2011. Officina is located in a private house, and Lin Yan created a series of works in response to the staircase, the study room and the dining room. Between Day and Night #1 is made with white Xuan paper, and created based on an interior window along the staircase. Between Day and Night #2 is all black.

In the current exhibition at Fou Gallery, Lin Yan revised the artwork and placed it next to the floor-to-ceiling windows with a handmade plexiglass frame so that the light could penetrate into. The centerpiece of the revised work is embedded in a circular mirror. When people watched into the center, they thought they can see the scenery outside the window, but instead they see themselves.

《日夜之间1》为林延2015年在比利时布鲁塞尔的Officina基金会个展特别创作，由2011年席卷纽约的Sandy飓风中倒下的树木的横截面拓印而成。Officina坐落于一栋私人住宅中，林延根据房屋的楼梯、书房、餐厅等创作了一系列作品。《日夜之间1》为楼梯间一侧的室内圆窗创作，全部由白色宣纸组成；《日夜之间2》则全部为黑色。此次在否画廊的展览，林延重新修改了作品，放置于落地窗户旁，并加上了有机玻璃，使得光线可以透入，修改后的作品中央嵌一面圆镜，当人注视其中，以为可以看到窗外景色时，实则看到的是自己。

Carry On 继续 , 2016

Lin Yan graduated from The Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1984 and pursued further studies at L'École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1985. In 1993, she moved to New York and since then lives and works in New York. In 1994, Lin returned to Beijing. In order to respond to the demolition of Beijing’s historic buildings and districts, Lin began to cast, with paper, the partial objects of old buildings in Beijing, such as roof tiles and rivets, so as to crystalize her feelings for traditional culture in her works. Carry On was casted from the remnants of walls in the demolished historic courtyard alleys in Beijing. On the other side it features layers of black paper, with fragmented white paper growing out of it. Carry On hangs from the ceiling and invites the viewer to look at it from different perspectives.

林延1984年从中央美术学院油画系毕业后，前往巴黎国立高等美术学院进修，1993年后主要生活和工作在纽约。1994年她回到北京，有感于急剧的现代化进程对城市古建筑的破坏，开始用纸翻铸老城墙的砖、瓦，将北京城的传统建筑、东方文化融合呈现在现代语言之中，也充满了对古建筑破坏，城市拆迁造成的无可挽回的文化损失深深的伤痛。《继续》的一面由北京的传统四合院的墙砖拓印而成，另一面有一层层的墨色纸，中间有片段的白色长出，从天花板上悬挂而下，观者坐在沙发上，抬头会不期而遇它的不同面向。

Other Works 其他作品

The relationships between architecture and space and between humans and nature have been recurring themes in Lin’s artwork. Rapid modernization and globalization have homogenized cities in the world: towering skyscrapers have risen from the ground and gradually spread out from the center of the cities. At the same time, Lin sensitively searches for diverse cultural elements in cities, such as remnants of walls in the demolished historic courtyard alleys in Beijing, the wood block from Yangliuqing woodcut print,  and pavement bricks carved with words and dates in the old districts of Brooklyn. Some of the small works in the exhibition feature various architectural details.

对空间与建筑，人与自然关系的探索一直是林延作品中反复出现的主题。高速的现代化和全球化进程使得世界大都市呈现出相似的样貌——耸入云霄的摩天大楼拔地而起，由城市中心向外扩张。而林延则在其中敏感地寻找与人相关的元素，可能是北京拆迁中幸存的老城墙，杨柳青年画的木板，布鲁克林工业区刻有字母和年代的老地砖。展览中的其他小作品呈现了这些不同面貌的建筑细节。

All the Best! 祝好！, 2016

Drizzling #4 细雨4， 2017

Sparse Dream in Brooklyn 疏梦-布鲁克林， 2015

Go 行， 2015

Pray 祈，2015

Return Home 3 回家3， 2015

Inquire for Works 作品征询

Article | 文字: Echo He; Photograph | 图片: Eugene Neduv, Peichao Lin; Poster Design: Tianxing Wan