Hai-Wen Lin
Changeroom

2.9.24–3.8.24

This is the changeroom;
Please remove your shoes before entering.

Big Cold turns to Standing Spring
and I find myself shining celestial
longitude 315
where home speaks dawn / twilight.
I strip and become light, 
no longer man,
bare breast touches night — (day touches back)
sunlight plush beneath feather feet.
Once, I changed and didn't come out
until 24 years had passed
ice burning like incense,
still practicing how to melt.
“How many items?”
I forget to count myself again
and suddenly we are all a fugitive yellow 
escaping in broad daylight,
penetrating the between.
Here we meet in secret,
you and I, 
sky and skin,
tell me how do I look?

—Hai-Wen Lin

Hai-Wen Lin is a Taiwanese-American artist whose work explores constructions of the body and its surrounding environment. They are an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, previously a LeRoy Neiman Fellow at the Ox-Bow School of Art, and earned a Master of Design in Fashion, Body and Garment from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where they were selected as a Fashion Future Graduate by the CFDA upon graduating.

 Lin has published research on smart textiles and taught origami workshops at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and MIT. They have performed publicly at the Chicago Cultural Center and MU Gallery and have exhibited work in a variety of places including the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, 3S Artspace, the walls of their home, their friend’s home, on a plate, on a lake, and in the sky.