The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 49 No 1 April 2010

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Kevin Chin, Logged (detail), 2009, oil pnmer on sealed canvas, h.21 Oem, w.l00cm; photo: (ourtesy artist
very successful space in 5t Kilda, linden has always struggled with its failure to provide a white cube for
the display of work. The white cube offers a modernist canvas which erases traces of previous activity,
enabling the artist to leap forward into the new. By contrast, the room that Chin operated in reeked of
the past. The fireplace, window and floor boards spoke of another era.
Rather than work against this, Chin drew our attention to its nature as 'hearth', a centre of domestic
gravity. He piled ash in the fireplace. He created Logged, a canvas painted with oil primer, whose subtle
log shapes were only visible when light streamed through the window. And on the floor were cast
floorboards, lit from below to highlight their contoured surface.
Chin's exhibition worked against the modern gaze, so accustomed to spectacle, and so quick to
render reality in a snapshot. He was not there to provide a surface image of the world, but to offer
instead an int imation of its material depths. As such, he discovered a dimension that can speak to us of
the lost past as well. We know that the world has spatial and temporal dimensions beyond which we
are able to experience in the here and now.
Kevin Chin,
Swept to the
Side, 2008
porcelain
h.35cm, w.335cm
d.6Scm
photo: courtesy
artist
THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS APRIL 2010 87