Conversations with Artists, Mel Chin
Tonight I attended the Phillips Collections, Conversation with Artist series featuring Mel Chin. To set the stage for an overview of his career as an artist and activist Chin opened the lecture by serenading us with Suspicious Mind. Mid song a banana came flying towards him from behind the audience. This banana and Elvis ballad introduced the year of 1968/69 when the first print ad ran for Chiquita Banana’s. In his artwork The Extraction of Plenty from What Remains: 1823, Mel Chin directly references the damage done to Central American countries that the United States imports crops like bananas, mahogany and coffee. The artwork itself is constructed of these elements as well as mud and goats’ blood.
Chin spoke in length about the production of this piece and the over arching effect that it’s creation had on him as an artist or as he stated ”unbecoming an artist”. He went on to address the development and construction of several other works giving the audience a frame work for understanding how and why he had come to his current project “Fundred”. In this work he is addressing the pervasive and crippling lead contamination of New Orleans and with the help of school children Chin has created a way to appeal to the United States government for the resources to neutralize the lead. Chin is a dynamic speaker who understands how to connect with his audience. As an artist his work is a dynamic mix of research, teamwork and the possibility of social change.
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