1. Mel Chin

2. Biography Born in Houston, Texas in 1951 Born to Chinese parents
First child in his family to be born in the U.S.
Raised in an African-American and Hispanic neighborhood
Family owned a grocery store

3. His artwork Started creating art at an early age
His artwork is not easy to classify
Brings art into unlikely places
*such as destroyed homes
*landfills
*popular television (to provoke greater social awareness and responsibility

4. Received his BA in 1975 from Peabody College in Nashville, Tenn.
Earned Fellowship Scholarships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1988 and 1990
Presently lives in North Carolina

5. What do we humans have in common?

6. Our emotions and our connection to the earth and it’s people

7. Every human being is eternally connected to the earth, it is what makes it possible for each one of us to survive.

8. Mel Chin brings creative awareness to issues that haunt the earth and our present day society

9. “He promotes works of art that have the ultimate effect of benefiting science or rejuvenating the economies of inner city neighborhoods”
Mel Chin

10. “KNOWMAD”

11. A video game that is based on rug patterns of nomadic people from the Middle East who are facing persecution
“KNOWMAD is a digital re-weave of patterns that have been around for thousands of years, that we know nothing about.”
art: 21 Season One Mel Chin

12. Dollar Project fundred.org

13. Project inspiration
Chin was asked to go to New Orleans to see what he could about the large amounts of lead in the soil
He was overwhelmed by the problem, but involved young students by having them each create their own “fundred” dollar bill that was then sent to congress, in hopes of additional funding for mending the soil
Chin recognized the importance of allowing young people’s voices to be heard

14. And… what the bills looked like

15. Why is it important to hear from young people?

16. It was the children who were mostly effected by the lead in the soil and they are the ones who cannot vote! This project allowed the voices of the youth to be heard.

17. Transformation Revival Field Project Toxic earth becomes healthy earth
Brings science, botany and alchemy together
Alchemy= altering something of little value into something of higher value
Toxic earth becomes healthy earth
Transformation

18. art: 21 Season One Mel Chin
“Re-sculpting
something
dead into
something living”.
Mel Chin
art: 21 Season One Mel Chin

20. “In Michelangelo's days he would have a
block of marble and he would have an
image in his mind, incredible images in
his mind, that he would take the chisel
and carve away at it until we see something
as remarkable as ‘David’. In our
contemporary times our material has
changed, we still use marble, but it can
also be stuff that we’ve never dreamt
of using.” Mel Chin
art: 21 Season One Mel Chin

21. art: 21 Season One Mel Chin
Special
Projects
Agriculture
Worms
Neighborhood
art: 21 Season One Mel Chin P R O J E C T

22. Mel Chin went to Detroit hoping to find something creative to do with a burnt house. He ended up taking the structure and pivoting it and used the basement as a place to grow worms to support local business… the best fishing worms in town. TRANSFORMATION art: 21 Season One Mel Chin

23. “Uses the internal organs of a place to create something new, a different form of reconstruction… Taking something that has no meaning and giving it meaning through conceptual art.” Mel Chin art: 21 Season One Mel Chin

24. BIG IDEA? I think it is transformation. His projects are contributions
Art 21 says that it is Consumption….
I think it is transformation.
His projects are contributions
that continue giving long after
he is gone.

25. Bibliography http://www. pbs. org/art21/artists/chin/index
Bibliography art: 21 Season One Mel Chin