Lin Tianmiao – Spawn #3

I wrote this piece was for Fukuoka Asian Art Museum’s Facebook feed. It was posted on 1 August 2019. Images belong to the museum.

Lin Tianmiao (China) “Spawn #3” (2001)

Dominating the third room in our Asia Gallery, which is dedicated to artworks exploring birth, Lin Tianmiao’s installation hangs down from the ceiling and demands the viewer’s full attention. Lin Tianmiao was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province in China. Since the mid-1990s, she has been making a series of installations inspired by the sewing work she did during her pregnancy.

In this piece there are numerous balls of yarn, of all sizes, both attached to and flying out from the pink-skinned body. These orbs of yarn and their attaching strings of thread both represent the eggs ovulated by a woman during her lifetime and also the social burdens that bind women during pregnancy and when raising children.

The technique of winding thread around an object until it is completely covered is a theme amongst her work. She calls this “thread winding” and it was born out of her own childhood memory helping her mother sew clothes for her family. In previous works, such as “Sewing” (1997) she has tried to give voice to the exploited women of China, who are often assigned the laborious task of sewing both at home and in the textile industry.

“Spawn #3” is part of a progression in Lin Tianmiao’s artwork which started with her series called “Focus” (2001), a Digital C-Type black and white image of herself printed on canvas and then superimposed with sewn textiles. This self-portrait evolved into a full-figure image, “Spawn” (2001) and subsequently the others in the Spawn series, all of which feature the yarn-balls that range in sizes, starting so small that they look like water drops or soap bubbles upon the canvas.

The self-portrait, which from a distance looks like a delicate drawing, is actually a blown-up photograph on white cotton scrim. It was taking just after Lin Tianmiao gave birth to her baby and makes clear that this piece speaks both to personal and universal experiences of womanhood. Being connected to the white yarn-balls, which represent her fertility and the burdens of motherhood, also conveys a strong sense of connectedness and purity.

The large nude body is hairless and she gazes assuredly with little emotion. On first glance, the viewer might guess that it is a male image, due to her bald head. The shaved appearance deliberately blurs gender lines and her confident full-frontal pose toys with Asian gender stereotyping that usually depicts weak and demure females.

Lin Tianmiao’s paintings, sculptures, and installations often explore dualities and she frequently contrasts different materials in her work. Underlying all of her work is an exploration of physical experience and the female body. Her artworks as much about her own life-journey as they are about broader societal issues.