Livien Yin: Paper Suns
to
The New Gallery 208 Centre Street SE, Calgary, Alberta T2G 2B6
Livien Yin, "Papers Suns," 2021
The New Gallery (TNG) is thrilled to present our current Main Space and Main Frame exhibition, Paper Suns by Livien Yin. Due to our ongoing closure, the Main Space exhibition components will be accessible via our storefront windows. The full painting series, and an exhibition text by Connie Zheng, are available through Main Frame.
Exhibition Description / Livien Yin: Paper Suns
Paper Suns is a painting series by Livien Yin which features fictionalized portraits of early Chinese Americans. The series is named after the history of Chinese-born “paper sons and daughters” who became American citizens by obtaining forged documents that stated they were children of already citizenized Chinese Americans. During the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943), tens of thousands of prospective migrants adopted these false identities to enter the United States as exceptions to what were the first laws that restricted immigrants on the basis of race and class. In Paper Suns, Yin expands on her historical research to imagine what “paper” identities could have looked like in spite of the pervasive limitations and resulting shame experienced by many immigrants of the time.
Sensual Chinese men and androgynous figures take center stage throughout Paper Suns’ vignettes of leisure. The intimately-sized gouache paintings in Paper Suns reference iconic American Realist paintings that depict contributions made by Chinese immigrants. Yin renders scenes of paper lanterns, a chop suey restaurant and the transcontinental railroad with added details that trace the presence of ethnic minorities which converged in these contexts. Paper Suns’larger canvas paintings utilize imagery found in photographic archives of Angel Island, American Chinatowns and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border where Chinese bachelor societies formed. By repurposing imagery from Exclusion-era photographs and paintings, Yin visualizes settings for Chinese immigrants where desire, pleasure and new camaraderies set the tone.
Biography /
Livien Yin is a visual artist working in painting and sculpture. Her projects examine the imperial legacies of botanical expeditions, guano mining and the migration of Chinese laborers. Yin’s sculptures serve as placeholders for the lost narratives of peoples within these histories. Her carvings reflect folk instruments whose origins remain unknown and combine motifs from little-understood archaeological artifacts. Yin’s paintings portray early Chinese immigrants at the center of sensual vignettes. She repurposes imagery from iconic American paintings and photographs—created during the Chinese Exclusion era—to imagine scenes foregrounded by leisure and pleasure. Yin received her BA from Reed College in 2012 and MFA from Stanford University in 2019. She is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.