Vanitas
2007
ink on U.S. one dollar bill
2 9/16 x 6 1/8 inches
as part of Drawn Currency
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I Don’t Want To
2006
sterling silver, hand-knapped Belizean flint
32 x 30 x 3 inchesIt’s not a game. Violence and poverty sent them North. Their service comes with sacrifice.
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Cluster
2006
gold, sterling sliver, stainless steel, gemstonesThe artist has observed that things bright and precious can create dark and sinister shadows. Such is the link between the illicit diamond trade in its sponsorship of terrorist activities and purchases of assault weapons to be used for warfare throughout the world. The jewelry designs are based on selected historical and medical records of wounds. The works come from consideration of value, violence, adornment, and mutilation of the physical body.
US Civil War (Entry/Exit body accessory)
14K Hamilton Gold, 14K gold filled chain, natural white sapphire, garnet, green cubic zirconia, red garnet, ruby
on body, w/ chain: 16 x 11 x 8 inchesSpecific documentation from a U.S. Civil War field observation of a conoidal bullet’s entry/exit wound is conveyed by amulets that hang front and back.
AK-47 (liver wound/sulfobromophthalein collapsing necklace)
gold 18K, antiqued sterling silver, white cubic zirconia, clear quartz beads, emerald cut topaz, smokey quartz, black jet
necklace flat, not including chain: 5 x 6 x 3/8 inchesA forensic examination of a liver, ripped apart by an AK-47’s blast, becomes the basis for a collapsing necklace; the design patterned from the chemical structure of sulfobromophthalein (a dye once used to test for liver damage).
M-16 (wound brooch)
14K white gold, lab grown ruby, marquise onyx, emerald cut cubic zirconia
2 1/8 x 2 1/2 inchesA Vietnam-era M-16 wound becomes a brooch designed as a single hole surrounded by crystalline contusions.
APERS (Anti-Personnel Cluster Bomb cage adornment)
solid sterling silver, sterling silver/18 k gold bi metal, stainless steel
49 x 30 inches diameter (will have additional height with stand)The effects of a Bosnian War Anti-Personnel Cluster bomblet is described by a wearable cage of jagged fragments of silver and gold, with a stainless steel net, trapping and mapping the coordinates of its destructive path.
Cluster drawings:
drawing for US Civil War, drawing for AK-47
drawing for M-16, drawing for APERS -
Circumfessional Hymenal Sea (Portrait of Jacques Derrida)
2006
books, paper, wood, silver-point, paint
77 x 77 x 62 inchesAn ivory tower to leap from and into.
The image of this work originated in a dream and immediately made sense of Derrida’s quip that he had read only four books out of his entire library. The sea is comprised of pages from books.
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Trajectory Study: Anti Personnel Cluster Bomblet BLU-61
2006
graphite on electro-pounced distressed paper, color digital output, ballpoint pen, archival tape
14 1/2 x 10 1/8 + 8 1/2 x 10 1/8 inchessee Cluster
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Recolecciones
1997-2006
mixed media (34 projects, over 200 objects)
Artworks inserted into and around the infrastructure of the entire libraryDownload a pdf guide to Recolecciones.
From City of San Jose Public Art website:
“Recolecciones” is the Spanish word for “recollections” — as in “memories.” It also means “harvests” or “gatherings.” The Latin root “LECT-” from which “recolecciones” derives means both “to gather” and “to read”: the ancient Romans seem to have envisioned reading as a process of gathering up scattered bits of information (the letters of the alphabet) and combining them into meaningful sequences. Readers are thus gatherers, harvesters. The library is a place where people come together to recall and reformulate their common heritage, a place designed for “re-col-lection,” that is, etymologically, “reading or harvesting again together.” The library’s public art collection is primarily designed to support this function.
As part of the City’s ongoing commitment to the arts, the San José Public Art Program commissioned Mel Chin to create an artwork integrated into the new Martin Luther King Jr. Library. The 33 artworks, sited throughout the library, are designed to pay homage to the Library’s book collections. These sculptural insertions are designed to provoke your interest and curiosity, encouraging exploration and circulation throughout the Library. All of the artworks are sited to surprise you and add to your sense of mystery and wonder. They are site-specific, their adjacency imbuing the piece with additional layers of meaning.
The artworks vary from large and dramatic statements to intimate and subtle insertions that may require numerous visits to discover. The Recolecciones artworks include functional installations such as chairs, tables and shelves, as well as wall paneling, sculptural ceilings, curious light projections, and more traditional formal sculpture. Some of the concepts are invested with a sense of humor, while others are designed to encourage contemplation.
Conceptual Acknowledgments:
Lead Team: Mel Chin, Haun Saussy, Robert Batchelor, and James Millar
Other contributors to the conceptualizations of the artworks include over 100 San Jose community members: San Jose City and University librarians; students of San Jose State University and Cooper Union School of Art.
San Jose State University Team: Wendy Angel, Ed Clapp, Francesca Davis, Russell Fan, Carolyn Gerstman, Janet Kang, David Kempkin, Rachel Lazo, Sheila Malone, Masako Miki, Inna Razumova, Rob Spain, Scott Trimball, John Zimmerman, Minging Zhou
Cooper Union School of Art Team: Amelia Bauer, Alejandro Cardenas, Robert de Saint Phalle, Jorge Elbrecht, Nina Gallant, Aimee Genell, Francis Kerrigan, Sam Kusack, Alexander Monachino, Sarah Morgan, Michael Vahrenwald, Allyson Vieira, Donald Tobias Wong
Concept contribution for specific artworks: Alejandro Cardenas, Amelia Bauer, Mary Rubin, Barron Brown, Russell Fan, Robert de Saint Phalle, Biblioteca Latinoamericana Community
For more information, visit the Recolecciones archive on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library website.
details:
Beethoven’s Inner Ear
Fiction/Fiction
Tectonic Tables
Sour Grapes
Wise Cracks
Golden Gate
Skeptacle
Self Help Mirror
Reflecting Pools (above: 8th floor, below: 3rd floor)