Sela Lin

Artist Statement

egg study (no. 1), (no. 2) STATEMENT:
The sculptural body acts as the apparatus for exploring themes of temporality, fragility, and memory. My curiosity in delicate, transitory mediums––such as raw eggshells and bone-dry clay––have led me to confront her own notions of stability, consummation, and material preciousness. In the making of this piece, and as it changes faces and weathers with time, I am forced to reconcile with the ephemeral as a vehicle for profound beauty. For now, it is here suspended in time, present for the viewer’s gaze.

____day STATEMENT:
____day is a rotational performance art piece that probes the mundane, the cyclical, and the ineffectual. A corporate office desk is situated in the heart of the Odegaard Undergraduate Library at the University of Washington. Here, the performers are apprehensive employees partaking in their shifts, often laboring dissociatively, disengaging from their responsibilities, idling away, until they are forcefully replaced by their workplace successor. Performances occurred nearly each day throughout the week, offering unbeknown audience members brief tokens of absurdity and spectacle.

Biography

Sela Lin (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, form maker, storyteller, photographer, and film enthusiast. Being a second-generation immigrant born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, her experiences during her youth in her hometown––and later, early adulthood in Seattle, Washington––largely inform her practice as an artist and the ways she strives to nurture community with nuance and sensitivity. Her artistic practice explores the loss of memory and the complex negotiation of identity and culture, subsequently imparting her deep yearning for an indiscernible past. Her work speaks to feelings of isolation, existentialism, fragility, interconnectedness, and an unwavering reclamation of her own childhood. Sela received her Bachelor's degrees in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts, with Departmental Honors, and Japanese Language & Literature at the University of Washington.

She was one of the original members of the curatorial initiative Our Playground, which worked to reclaim the UW’s Art Building courtyard as a playful, alternative exhibition space. Lin has exhibited in several shows including her solo installation, WOOM; a duo exhibition with Rosaline Dou, UNDER UNDER; and a group show, OPEN SWIM. Her past works have been published in Muse, Bricolage, The Basement, and HOMEROOM.

egg study (no. 1)_2024_Eggshells, unfired clay, chicken wire, aluminum_dimensions variable

egg study (no. 2)_2024_Tea-dyed blue eggshells, thread, adhesive_dimensions variable

____day_2024_Live performance