Mel Chin

Mel Chin (born 1951 in Houston, Texas, USA) is a conceptual visual artist. Motivated largely by political, cultural, and social circumstances, Chin works in a variety of art media to calculate meaning in modern life. Chin places art in landscapes, in public spaces, and in gallery and museum exhibitions, but his work is not limited to specific venues. Chin once stated: “Making objects and marks is also about making possibilities, making choices—and that is one of the last freedoms we have. To provide that is one of the functions of art.”

In 1975, Chin graduated from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. Shortly after, in 1976, Chin created See/Saw: The Earthworks for Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, where the artist manipulated two sections of the park’s surface to create a kinetic, minimalist earthwork. In this mimic of a childhood pastime, Chin altered the landscape with an underground hydraulic device that allowed the participant to shift large sections of earth with their body weight. The title also questions psychological perception of what is above and below an object's surface. This piece addressed three of the major art trends of the time: minimalism, conceptualism, and earthworks.

In 1983, Chin moved to New York City. He created MYRRHA P.I.A. (Post Industrial Age) (1984), site specific to Bryant Park. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, the work was based on a Gustave Doré engraving depicting Myrrha in the 30th canto of Hell from Dante’s Inferno. Chin created a three-dimensional figurative sculpture employing 19th century fabrication techniques, conjoined with space-age materials.

In 1989, Chin had a one-person exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. In The Operation of the Sun through the Cult of the Hand (1987), Chin addressed ancient Greek philosophy and Chinese philosophy. He investigated mythological constructions, and scientific information to contradict personal interpretations in the formulations of these works. Chin used nine planets of the solar system to launch this elaborate construction. The installation comments on the origins of word material and form from East and West by drawing upon mythology, alchemy, and science in each culture.

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