Banished to an ulterior world where walls glow red and disturbing etches begin to crawl, Candice Lin rejects the conventional and erects a strangely fascinating and macabre collection of works in its place. Ranging from animated videos to sculptures and drawings; each piece contributes to breaking down preconceived notions of ‘humanness’ and the forms of power which make up Western society.
As you step inside, you are stopped by an eldritch-esque, metamorphosing sculpture, Piss Protection Demon. At first glance, it takes the appearance of a webbed, martian-looking creature; however, upon further inspection, the creature transforms into something closer to home. The gold tones of the sculpture makes the human ear glimmer just above the stodgy lower cat’s body. A merging of life. Lin strips down the ordinary concepts of what is animal and what is human by inventing a new hybrid, immune to categorization.
Next, your eyes are directed up to a screen rotating back and forth. An animated cat tells morbid stories of disturbing human encounters with animals. The cat’s word’s echo across the whole exhibit leaving a bitter taste in your mouth.
Upstairs, beyond the collard sculptures and the series of etched drawings, lives a sculpture of a pregnant woman, The Moon (2013). Segmented from above the belly to the thighs, they are dissected and left alone in a shadowy room. The observers can peer through her vagina to watch the film, Inside Out (2013). The act of viewing the video transforms the body into a vessel presenting underlying themes of misogyny and violence
Lin sends you to a dark and grisly place, they create a fever-dream space where human and non-human bodies are inverted, transformed and manipulated. The overarching feeling of uncomfortableness enables one to critically question what lies in front of us.
You can see Candice Lin’s exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery until 1st June 2024
Photo of Candice Lin’s Piss Protection Demon taken by Rosie Dean Harding