Braiding--Lin+Tianmiao


 * Braiding by Lin Tianmiao**

**Identification** //Braiding// Lin Tianmiao Beijing, China Chinese Contemporary Mixed media installation-photography, video, threads Dimensions variable Gothaer Kunstforun, Cologne Germany

**I**ntroduction
//Braiding// is mixed media installation by contemporary Chinese artist Lin Tianmiao. The work is a 12-foot-tall self portrait of the artist, with threaded strings that are braided across a room and lead to a video monitor which displays the artist threading the image of herself symbolically. The installation represents the different strings that are attached to an individual that came as a result of cultural restraints. Tianmiao is one of the most prominent modern female artists from China, and //Braiding// showcases her innovative work.

Descriptive Analysis
Lin Tianmiao’s //Braiding// is an installation piece that includes photography, video, and thread. The piece consists of a 12-foot-tall digital photo of the artist printed on a thin transparent piece of cloth. The photo hangs from a metal contraption and is connected to it through a series of triangulated strings. The cloth contains hundreds of holes in which the artist wove pieces of thread through. All of the thread is combined in the back of the photo and is then made into a series of braids that stretch across the floor of the open room and lead to a video monitor. The monitor plays a video of Tianmiao weaving thread through the cloth printed photo. The artist has a shaven head in the photo, which seems blurry and out of focus. It is a black and white photo that seems to glow white, due to the medium in which it is projected on.

Formal/Contextual Analysis
//Braiding// is one of many self portraits by Tianmiao. The large scale photograph of her shaven head exudes a Mao-like grandeur. Many contemporary Chinese artists use Maoist imagery to symbolize the state of change the country as experienced since the end of the Cultural Revolution. By using her own image, Tianmiao not only communicates to the viewer on a personal level, but the sole image of a woman emanating Mao speaks on the cultural change that China has undergone in the past two decades.

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese leaders changed the political landscape of China. They decided to create reforms that supported a market economy within a centralized political system which accepted foreign investments (asiasociety.com, 2008, p. 1). Due to this, China has since experienced an economic boom of unimaginable proportions. Experimental artists started moving from the rural areas into the cities and have been able to tap into the global art world. A major theme with new experimental artists is exploring China’s “modernity with Chinese characteristics” (Hui Hsu, 2005, p. 2). Doing this in a country where tradition is so important is difficult, but the artists have found creative ways of mixing influences from China's past with interesting modern techniques. Tianmiao is one of the most prolific female artists that has developed out of the past and into the future of China’s art world.

The medium that Tianmiao uses has great significance. During the years of the Cultural Revolution under Mao’s rule photography was used as a propaganda tool to solidify Communist rule. Since 1976, after the end of Maoist rule Chinese artists have been using photography in new, exciting and modern ways. Tianmiao’s work is at the forefront of the exceptionally innovative work that is coming out of China today (Hui Hsu, 2005, p. 2). The grand size of photograph is reminiscent to the large scale propaganda portraits of Chairman Mao. The photo of Tianmiao references these photos to symbolize the change China has experienced since the end of his rule, and the fact that she is a Chinese woman who can now express herself using photography and referencing Mao-like imagery, that formally would have been a crime.

The act of winding strings is a signature in Tianmiao's art. The act itself is expressive to her art and is similar in nature to how a viewer could interpret the action painting of like Jackson Pollock; it is the knowledge of the technique the artist uses to create their art which gives it a different contextual meaning. Where Pollock uses paint, Tianmiao uses strings. Similary, American fiber artist Sheila Hicks is world renowned for the intricate detail in her weavings including braiding, which are metaphorical for her personal journeys. The strings in tianmiao's //Braiding// are threaded through the cloth that the photograph of the artists shaven head is printed on. The strings are then gathered at the back of the cloth and are combined into thick braids that stretch across the span of a room, and end at a video display of Tianmiao threading the string. Each string represents an element of an individual's culture which defines them but at the same time constrains them (artzine.com, 2008, p.1).



The fact that the strings are combined and braided across the floor references a concept of braiding hair, which is associated with childhood. The long distance that the strings stretch, the length of an almost empty room, represents the span of a lifetime. The strings, are literally attached to the individual, threaded through the portrait of Tianmiao. Tianmiao makes the statement that no matter what one does, the different elements of culture and childhood are a part of the collective person that one becomes. One of the "strings" that Tianmiao refers to is the undeniable reference of Mao, solidified by the grand scale size of the photo of herself, which makes the biggest statement of all. China can not escape its past. A person is a product of their culture, no matter how much that culture changes, no one can escape their pasts, not a nation or its individuals.

Tianmiao’s work can be interpreted on many levels. Her installation work often uses materials from everyday life; which she restructures to convey the ambiguous feelings she has for the mundane chores in her daily life (artzine.com, 2008, p. 1). Below are examples of some of her other pieces including her and series //Here? or There?// series and //Endless//. Her series //Here? or There?// ties in to the representation of women in her art, what it means to be a women to her and more specifically what it means to be a contemporary Chinese woman. This is a well-explored topic in Tianmiao's art. In //Braiding//, she uses a photo of herself, a Chinese woman, to illuminate the state of China today. The act of winding thread is a meditative process for Tianmiao, and most often represents the mundane chores and responsibilities that are usually associated with women (womenofchina.com, 2007, p.1).