The Wayward Flight of an Auspicious Sign

2003
colored pencil on black paper
15 3/4 x 22 3/4 inches

“In the morning of the Chinese New Year in February 2003, I began a continuous, single-line drawing of a bat, an auspicious symbol in Chinese folklore. I was meditating on the United States discussions to invade Iraq and could foresee only a dark future. Thus the drawing took a blind uncertain path within itself, unable to escape the containment of its outline.”

Image:
Chin, Mel (b. 1951) © Copyright. The Wayward Flight of an Auspicious Sign. 2003.
Colored pencil on black paper, 15 3/4 x 22 3/4″ (40 x 57.8 cm). The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art
Resource, NY