ART EVENTS
MEL CHIN, INVITED DAI HO CHUN CHAIR
Nov. 13 – 17, 2017
PUBLIC LECTURE & RECEPTION
Wednesday, November 15th Reception 5:30-6:15.
Wednesday, November 15th Lecture, Trouble in Mind, 6:30-7:30.
Artist Information:
There has always been much trouble in the world, and in a wired world, we are more conscious of the problems than ever before. What are the expectations for art to provide solutions or response? Artist Mel Chin will talk about his art and practice as attempts to provide and provoke greater social awareness of toxic situations found in both politics and the environment.Mel Chin was born in Houston, Texas in 1951. Chin’s art, which is both analytical and poetic, evades easy classification. He is known for the broad range of approaches in his art, including works that require multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork and works that conjoin cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas.
ABOUT MEL CHIN: Chin’s sculpture practice bridges natural, political, and social ecologies. In 1989, he developed Revival Field, a project that was a pioneer in the field of “green remediation,” the use of plants to remove toxic, heavy metals from the soil. From 1995 to 1998, Chin formed a collective that produced In the Name of the Place, a conceptual public art project conducted on the popular prime-time TV series, Melrose Place. In KNOWMAD, Chin worked with software engineers to create a video game based on rug patterns of nomadic people facing cultural disappearance. His hand-drawn, 24-minute film, 9-11/9-11, won the prestigious Pedro Sienna Award—the “Oscar” of Chile—for best animation in 2007. His ongoing project, Fundred Dollar Bill/Operation Paydirt, focuses national awareness and prevention on childhood lead poisoning. A multi-venue exhibition of Chin’s work will be presented in New York City in the spring of 2018.
Chin was featured on PBS’s ART 21 series and has received numerous awards and grants from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Art Matters, Creative Capital, and the Penny McCall, Pollock/Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Rockefeller and Louis Comfort Tiffany foundations, among others. Chin’s website is www.melchin.org.
Free admission to events. Donations are appreciated.
Parking fees may apply.
These events are made possible by the late Dr. Dai Ho Chun through his estate gift, which established The Dai Ho Chun Distinguished Chair Endowment in the Colleges of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Chun was a distinguished and visionary educator. The colleges of Arts and Humanities and Languages, Linguistics & Literature, the Department of Art and Art History, and UH Office of Sustainability have helped to promote these events.