Mel Chin does not subscribe to any singular practice or medium. He views art as an evolutionary process, shifting and growing to settle into society where needed the most.
“Everything I do is based on concept, whether it’s an object or painting or a public action,” Chin told The Charlotte Observer during his 2013 McColl Center artist residency. “The concept demands the tools, materials, and methodologies to be found or invented.”
In his diverse oeuvre, Chin explores themes of politics, health, environment, and social justice. After earning a BA at Peabody College in 1975, he began his career with installations such as See-Saw. This site-specific installation consisted of two planter boxes linked by a hydraulic system; one box would lift a group standing upon the earth, and the other would lower, inviting the participant to ponder their ability to create change.
Chin continued to explore environmental issues in one of his most notable works, “Revival Field.” In 1991, Chin planted sixty acres of vegetation in a hazardous waste landfill in hopes to reverse the pollution haunting the land. This concept made him a pioneer in “green remediation,” the process of removing heavy metals from soil using plants.
At McColl Center, Chin created pieces for his exhibition, “Recap,” including work for the “Fundred Dollar Bill” project. After learning of the many children in New Orleans living with lead poisoning and zero government funding to remedy it, Chin asked himself: is this artistic inspiration, or simply a harsh truth of the world we live in? Thus, Operation Paydirt, a project dedicated to raising awareness of childhood lead poisoning, was conceived.
From conceptualizer to evidence gatherer, Chin searched for a way art could provoke change and draw the attention of Congress to the issue. McColl Center served as the collection center for “Fundred Dollar Bills” of the Southeast.
The space set up as a pseudo-bank, visitors of the exhibition opening drew their own versions of a hundred-dollar bill that would become part of an installation for “Recap.” These artworks would then be collected from cities across the country and presented to Congress in an armored truck in 2014 to raise awareness for Operation Paydirt.
Chin used his residency at McColl Center as an opportunity to explore what he calls “unauthorized collaborations.” Here, he experimented with unearthing old portraits discarded by history, removed from context and family, and gives them new life. One of these pieces comes straight from Charlotte’s well-loved antique mall, Sleepy Poet. He describes his process as surgical, giving these forgotten loved ones a new place in contemporary art. This material process, he says, liberates him from his practice as a conceptual artist.
Chin was born in Houston, Texas. His work has been shown across the world and can be found in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. He now lives and works in North Carolina. > Explore more of Mel Chin’s work.
