My Crystal Palace

The project's name is a clin d’oeil to the original Crystal Palace, built in 1851 for the Great Exhibition in London, and its smaller replica in Montreal. The Montreal Crystal Palace hosted the 1860 Industrial Exhibition, showcasing agricultural and industrial products from North America as a symbol of British colonial power.

The scientific revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries challenged many long-held religious beliefs. Coupled with the trauma of the 2nd Industrial Revolution, laying the groundwork for alternative spiritual movements and holistic health trends like Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Theosophy and New Thought. In the 1970’s, these ideas were popularized by the counterculture and evolved into New Age practices - a commercialized manifestation of the earlier counterculture shift. Today, the US has a $1.8 trillion wellness economy and 2.3 billion is in the healing crystals.

Throughout my ongoing research on dowsing, I’ve developed a deep fascination towards these minerals of ethereal beauty hidden in the depths of the earth’s crevices. I’m interested in the crystals’ anthropomorphic healing qualities, and the hidden supply chain behind their shiny surface, including the murkiness of their origins, and the environmental and human impact around resource extraction in the name of healing.

My Crystal Palace proposes a revised vision of the world exhibitions, featuring sculptures of ‘’crystals’’ made with glass and sugar, two materials historically associated with personal and imperial wealth. Many of these gravity-defying pieces are floating in midair, and suspended above mirrors, allowing viewers to observe them from both above and below. This project also serves as a personal reconciliation, an attempt to unpack my mother’s beliefs.

  Aerolith, 2025
Copper, window glass
50cm x 40cm x 200cm 
Photograph by Yen-Chao Lin
Red Agate, 2023
Glass
14.5cm x 11cm x 3.5cm
Photograph by Yen-Chao Lin

  Specimen_047, 2023
Glass
14.5cm x 11cm x 3.5cmPhotograph by Yen-Chao Lin

.   Specimen_Sea Egg, 2023
Window glass
21cm x 10cm x 12cm 
Photograph by Yen-Chao Lin

.     Speciment 003_beryl, 2024
Window glass
60cm x 26cm x 15cm 
Photography by Yen-Chao Lin

  Mind Reader, 2023
Glass, copper, alginate20cm x 17cm x 6cmPhotograph by Yen-Chao Lin

    Les bonbons, 2024
Glass, mineral, sugar
17cm x 12cm x 4.5cm
Photography by Yen-Chao Lin

Maidenm Mother & Crone, 2023
Window glass
17.5cm x 18cm x 2cm 
Photograph by Yen-Chao Lin

The Stray Specimen, 2025
Glass
25cm x 18cm x 4cm 
Photograph by Yen-Chao Lin