HOST

HOST (duo exhibition with Justine Skahan)
articule, Montreal, Canada
March 8 - April 20, 2024

HOST, 2024
Installation view at articule
Dimensions variable
Photography by Paul Litherland

The exhibition explores the complexity of the notion of home, often perceived as universal despite inequitable accessibility. It also questions the concepts of security, intimacy and sharing associated with it, through the distinct artistic approaches of Yen-Chao Lin and Justine Skahan.

The works exhibited by Justine Skahan are the result of an itinerant artistic residency in the coastal and isolated regions of Quebec and the Maritimes. By exploring these isolated territories, she questions notions of housing and home, challenging the ideas of proximity, community and stability usually associated with them. She highlights the precarity of access to a home, interrogating the need for an enclosed space to define this concept, and proposes a new perspective on our relationship with wide open spaces, landscapes, light and nature in general. Skahan's paintings also explore the notion of security that surrounds the home. They depict twilight landscapes devoid of human presence, as well as scenes taken from crime documentaries or thrillers, evoking an atmosphere of hostility or fear. Despite this sometimes hostile atmosphere, a certain gentleness emanates from these vast expanses.

In the following part of the exhibition, visitors metaphorically enter the physical intimacy of the home as they pass through an initial sculpture evoking a traditional door decoration, symbolizing the entrance to Yen-Chao Lin’s home. Dioramas with peepholes allow the public to observe the interiors on display, reinforcing the sense of voyeurism associated with visiting the home, whether as a guest or as cohabitant. The artist invites visitors to explore the intimacy of her childhood home, but it's up to the audience to perform the intrusive gesture. The dioramas offer an immersive experience of the house as a whole, blending authentic memories of the artist's childhood in Taipei in the '80s with fictional ones. These interiors abound in symbols for the public to decipher through the prism of the artist's childhood, her intimate experiences and the viewer's individual perspective.

« Host » also invites environmental reflection, notably on the massive accumulation of manufactured resources in the home. The maritime landscapes, for their part, conceal the consequences of global warming that these geographically vulnerable spaces are suffering (floods, fires, etc.).

Exhibiton text by Célia Mourey