Written by Li-Ting Jian╱Lecturer, Taipei National University of the Arts

Although there are various methods and rich materials in the artistic creation nowadays, Renaissance theorist Leon Battista Alberti’s ”Window”, still deeply influences our visionary experience. In his De Pictura created in 1435, he talked about the origin of painting,”First of all about where I draw. I inscribe a quadrangle of right angles, as large as I wish, which is considered to be an open window through which I see what I want to paint.”In this virtual window, what Alberti sees apparently not the landscape outside, but historia, a space that does not belong in reality, a descriptive scene. This explains the main topic of the painting was not the window, but use it as a metaphor, insert abstract theory into the prospective, mimic, understand and learn human’s noble behavior through vision, as an inspiration of humanity.

When paintings bear the content of religion, history, saints and historic incidents, they convert from simply describing reality to some kind of delicately planned narrative. The object and space painted as a stage, the imagery is the scene or the actors in it. It is not surprising to think this allegory also works with monitor. Scholar Anne Friedberg’s work is directly named“The Virtual Window : From Alberti to Microsoft”extending the“Window”from Renaissance to the digital times. In the past, looking at paintings is probably like us looking at mobile phones, computers or TV. No matter from the technical prospective or cognitional habit, rectangle frame might be the best imagery scope.

The connection of“Alberti’s Window”with the past and modern times reflect the history of human imagery experience. This can be understood as the clue of Lin’s current creation. Her work never leaves out digital devices, converting
into paintings in various methods through photography. On the other hand, her current work turns to the people surrounded, especially focusing on the people’s behavior when using mobile phones and tablets. Monitors everywhere have been a common phenomenon. It has become our new path to know the world, from the method of cognition to the content.

Therefore, we present“Re-Visiting Virtual Window”as the topic of Lin’s sole exhibition, expressing the paintings, the frames, and the topic. Exhibited works include two topics: before 2017, which is mainly using plants, flowers as themes, such as Kite, Flowing Light and Commencement , etc… These works use acrylic , templates and syringe, to let the paint naturally cumulate, duplicate and cover on canvas, producing rich layers of paints. Another topic is after 2017, mainly focusing on people. However, instead of portrait paintings, she locates the figures in particular scenery, especially the people who are using mobile phones and tablets, with extending techniques. These works involve the following prospective:

Lin’s works have obvious photographic angle. This has to do with her material obtained from cameras. In her earlier works which focused on plants, you can see close-ups of various plants. A corner in the flower bushes, for example, or the end of a branch, these is never a complete scene in the imagery, no horizon nor linear prospective for space structure. In the current works, the photographic materials are acquired from daily lives, mostly indoor. The figures in paintings usually concentrate on staring at mobile phones and tablets, other than that, there is no other arrangement of narrative or imagery structure. Therefore, there is always incomplete and pieces of shape or object in Lin’s works, incomplete, unlike the stage setting. They are pretended three dimensional elements compressed in a two dimensional frame. The complete timeline in classical narrative is shuttered into pieces of life. This concept of shuttered time is influenced by the modern society. The“Modernism”in 1863, as Charles Baudelaire said,“ the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent”would appear to be stronger in the 21 century with the data explosion and internet.

Although through the assistance of photography, we still cannot neglect Lin’s execution on painting method. She focuses on the shaping for forming of painting. For example, she uses a great amount of templates, acrylic paints layering. Peeling templates and showing the covered base color. Or spaying, dipping, flowing and pressing paints to form natural thickness. These all show the random and out-of-control signs of the artist in visionary. She often uses the same picture or pictures taken in seconds to make symmetric paintings. In similar imageries, she experiences different portrayals. If we chase back to the two traditions of western paintings, sketches and colors, instead of the emphasis on reason, linear and structure in former, Lin’s obviously chooses the latter, sensible, painterly and effective. The successors of the Color style in modern art also provide Lin’s reference on paintings. Although her works are not abstract, she expands methods through painting particular objects.

Besides acquiring scenes from photography, medium of digital image and other cultural events have also become Lin’s concerned topics. It has to do with her past working with computers and mobile phones, as well as her way of pioneering on artistic creation. In fact, history has never lacked retro stylists, whether it’s resisting industry and yearning for the nature, or doubting the civilization and pursuing the innocence and purity of gardens and farms. They develop relative artistic works. On the contrary, another group of artists are passionate about the current environment and insert the passion in their works. For example, Philip James de Loutherbourg’s painting on furnace in factories, J. M. Turner’s painting on battleships and steam trains in the 19th century. These are not simply an alternation of topics, but also signify the possibility of experiencing new perspective and the representation and extension of this new perspective in term of artistic language.

Same as before, when Lin starts to turn her topic to people’s life with electronic devices, she faces the limitation of angle. Plants in natural are dynamic in the physical space, like you have to look up to see the tree branches; however, people’s life environment becomes simpler. The photographic angle also becomes ordinary. In the sense of psychological cognition, compared with dynamic appearance of plants, humans are more recognizable in shape. Therefore, the audience tend to directly distinguish the people from the painting itself. In Classics, historical painting, portrait paintings are difficult. If the expression figures ́ postures and emotions has to be precise without beauty, then the portrayal of people in modern art is different but in a way opposite of the Classics. Because compared with other materials, human shape is full of limits. Artists have to work hard to compress the human form under the artistic language, through human unlikeness to achieve the effective of work. For example, The Fauves and the Expressionist artists place figures in strong lines and color blocks. George Baselitz even paints figures upside down to achieve an indistinguishable, abstract effect.

Therefore, when Lin uses photographic angle to describe ordinary daily life, she emphasizes on the thickness of the material and mix it with templates and imprint technique. Next, like Focus , Enlightenment 1-4 , Is It Time Yet? , Lin conspicuously borrow American comics and color separation in printing to arrange figures from bright to dark as well as the complication of frames to form different blocks to make templates. That is why the figures in paintings have acute lines. She also uses multi-layer duplication technique and emphasizes the paints with overflowing linear blocks of colors, such as Business First , Deal , Photographer . These practices lead the painting language to the digital life constructed by mobile phones and tablets.

Lin’s method of scene acquisition from photography and her passion on digital life cause her to pay attention to the relationship between family and friends and take photos of them. This brings a perspective of“witness”to her works. People in paintings are usually concentrating on monitors, neglecting the surrounding. These so called“phubber”undoubtedly is unneglectable in contemporary cultural phenomenon. And the charisma of monitors comes from the development of communication. If we use year 2000 as the countries are open for the third generation of third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology as the time point, the“phubber” is considered the product of the 21st century.

Back to the“Window”allegory, if the Renaissance painting is classic, theory pursuing, nature surpassing virtual window, then the painting themes which system of classicism depreciating would lead to rich and dynamic virtual window, Lin’s works present remarkable life style of today. It might be called some kind of genre painting in the 21st century, composed by the contemporary life intertwined with painting, photography, and monitor and what’s behind the scene.