Mel Chin – Visting Artist, 2008
Chin’s work examines the land.  His project, Revival Field (1991-93), tested rare plants in a superfund site in Minnesota which confirmed the science of removing heavy metals from the soil with hyperaccumulating species. Render, above, used encaustic painted like bits of an exploded body, in the pattern of stressed Palestinian communities of the West Bank, from mapped evidence of ethnic cleansing through illegal Israeli development.

9/11-9/11

Mel Chin screened his  animated film, 9/11-9/11, at CAVS in 2007. The film  juxtaposes the events of September 11, 1973 and September 11, 2001. He also introduced Fundred, 2008, a public project bringing attention to lead levels in neighborhoods of New Orleans through a national mobilization of artistic labor.

The first year harvest of the test plants at Pig’s Eye Landfill in St. Paul, MN.  This is a conceptual artwork with an intent to sculpt a site’s ecology by detoxifying the soil (of heavy metal contamination) using plants as agents. An ongoing project in conjunction with Dr. Rufus Chaney, senior research agronomist, USDA.

The images on this page came from an archived 2008 version of Chin’s website. To see more of his work, go here.