A Useful Instruction On How to Nail A Book Down
Yan JinDimensions of installation: variable
Dimensions pictured: 9 x 7 x 4.75 inches
Medium: book, bright nails, balloons, bubblegum, broken porcelain, bee pollen powder, bullets, berries, ben’s fishing line
Description:
The installation A Useful Instruction On How to Nail A Book Down is a tongue-in-cheek demonstration of how meaning is generated between the interplay of presence and absence, signifier and signified. Six pages from Jorge Borges’ Other Inquisitions are teared up and replaced by various objects in the absence of the written words. The missing pages, the objects hidden in the balloons, the nailed and unflippable book, all these together form a labyrinth of the infinite long chain of meanings which continue to defer and expand. In the book, Borges wrote about a proposed universal language, a justification of suicide, a refutation of time, and the intricacies of linguistic forms.
About the Artist:
Yan Jin is an artist born in Shanghai, China. She is currently based in New York where she obtained her Master of Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts, Photography, Video and Related Media department. Her works include photography, video, sculpture, and multi-media installations. She constantly redefines the found photo and found objects by various procedures including scanning, retouching, erasing etc; blurs the gaps between facts and fiction, presence and absence, brings disparate binaries in dialogue with one another. She received Paula Rhodes Memorial Award for exceptional achievement in 2021.
Yan Jin is an artist born in Shanghai, China. She is currently based in New York where she obtained her Master of Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts, Photography, Video and Related Media department. Her works include photography, video, sculpture, and multi-media installations. She constantly redefines the found photo and found objects by various procedures including scanning, retouching, erasing etc; blurs the gaps between facts and fiction, presence and absence, brings disparate binaries in dialogue with one another. She received Paula Rhodes Memorial Award for exceptional achievement in 2021.