Weiyu Lin

Weiyu Lin is a conceptual photographer working with still life, constructed imagery, and photographic installation who has exhibited in the United Kingdom and China. Recent exhibitions include Middlesex University and Filet Space in London, and Guiyang Art Museum in China. His notable recognition includes an exhibition and award from Imageless Dummy Photobook Awards (IDPA) in Hong Kong. 

The work of Weiyu Lin can primarily be found in three sets of series: Roaming Under the Apple Tree, Melting, and A Grammar of Things. In Roaming Under the Apple Tree, we will find photo montages of carefully selected and presented textured surfaces, which seem like a process of erosion. With Melting, these are photographic assemblages which are assembled like a vivid distortion, an optical illusion as if our world has been thrust into portals. Finally, in Roaming Under the Apple Tree, we will find reflective surfaces in carefully orchestrated still life compositions. Weiyu Lin is quite methodical in his work, which leaves a portfolio based on careful planning, theatrics, and staged set design, as opposed to documentative improvisation. 

These photographs and photo collages by Weiyu Lin reflect an archive of experiences and memories, as a result, the carefully-chosen subject matter is highly symbolic of intimacy, the study of the energy of space, and assembled artifacts of eternal gaze. When Weiyu Lin selects a subject or space, careful staging and precise atmospheric lighting is applied to the scene. The lighting is directional and engineered to elevate the subtle surfaces and texture, in order to convey emotional impulses. Such subtle qualities and approach converts familiar subjects and scenery into distant elements of mindful meditation. What the viewer will find within the surfaces of these textural compositions is a subtle sfumato of granular light particles emanating and even shining as well as reflecting off the surface and an atmospheric tension of gradient, almost monochromatic tones leaving an apparitional and ethereal effect. In these photographic works, light and texture speak poetry into the purpose and philosophical meaning behind these assembled scenes and still lifes. Much like an enigma, we are left to solve the puzzle of these orchestrated ‘conceptual artifacts’. 

Roaming Under the Apple Tree V. 9 (pictured above) depicts a photographic montage (or diptych) of closeup illuminated shots of textured fiber materials. To the left is drapery upon a window sill and to the right we will find what seems to be organic-based textiles, displayed in a manner to be a transparent screen. The dichotomy between a theatrical scene of textiles with a transparent layer followed by translucent organic-based fiber materials reveals a concept based on concealment, as if these objects and scenes were the foreshadowing of a mysterious and ambiguous narrative. 

With a thoroughly investigative approach which enacts carefully planned, meditative theatrics, Weiyu Lin applies philosophical contexts to natural scenes and object identification which reveal sensory impulses. Like a detective, he searches for clues within the machinations of materials and surfaces to carry profound meaning beyond their initial appearance. Through careful orchestration based in careful light composition, assembled composure, meticulous selection, modified compositions, and photographic collage, Weiyu Lin applies complexity to our understanding of the relationships between environments and contemporary human impulses.