Candice Lin in “Realms of the Reals” – Season 12 | Art21

Why It Matters

Lin’s practice forces cultural institutions to rethink how fragile, historically charged artworks are conserved and interpreted, reshaping conversations about colonial legacies and ecological entanglement in contemporary art.

Key Takeaways

• Lin transforms discarded materials into immersive, multisensory installations.
• “A Hard White Body” critiques colonial porcelain valuation and white supremacy.
• Urine‑moistened porcelain explores fragility and caretaking of cultural narratives.
• Pandemic shift led Lin to speculative textile works featuring cats and indigo.
• Teaching at UCLA fuels research, material experimentation, and collaborative learning.

Summary

Candice Lin, visual artist and UCLA professor, uses sculptural installations to turn everyday and historically loaded materials into immersive, often non‑visual experiences that engage smell, sound and touch.

Her work interrogates the colonial histories of pigments and ceramics—cochineal, yellow ochre, bone black, porcelain—by researching their origins and then subverting their traditional meanings. In “A Hard White Body” she misted unfired porcelain with distilled urine, allowing mold and cracks to form, later re‑firing fragments into island‑like sculptures; a Chicago iteration flooded the gallery with porcelain slip, underscoring the precariousness of cultural preservation.

Lin recalls a childhood fascination with a chicken head in a Chinese restaurant, noting that “as an adult I finally get to misuse things the way I wanted to.” She also describes the pandemic‑era shift to indigo‑dyed textiles and animated cat narratives, while students praise her as a “generous teacher” who turns research into collaborative discovery.

By foregrounding material instability and speculative storytelling, Lin challenges museums to reconsider preservation of volatile works and invites audiences to confront hidden histories of trade, labor and white supremacy, expanding contemporary discourse on art, ecology and decolonization.

Original Description

Art21 proudly presents an artist segment featuring Candice Lin from the "Realms of the Real" episode in the twelfth season of the Art in the Twenty-First Century series.

"Realms of the Real" premiered in February 2026 on PBS.

Candice Lin was born in 1979 in Concord, Massachusetts, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Learn more about the artist: https://art21.org/candicelin/

Support the production of films and educational materials about contemporary artists and art. Donate: https://art21.org/give.

CREDITS

Director: Stephanie Wang-Breal

Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski

Series Producer: Nick Ravich

Producer: Nan Sandle

Editor: Colin Nusbaum

Director of Photography: James Fideler

Associate Producer: Andrea Chung

Associate Curator: Jurrell Lewis

Design & Animation: Momentist, Inc.

Composer: Andrew Orkin

Artwork Courtesy: Candice Lin & François Ghebaly Gallery

Special Thanks: The Art21 Board of Trustees, Sophie Friedman-Pappas, Roger Jones, gene aguilar magaña, Charles McNulty, Yotam Menda-Levy, Dane Nakama, Roksana Pirouzmand, Gan Uyeda, Valeria Tizol Vivas.

Series Created By: Susan Dowling & Susan Sollins

Full credits available at: https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s12/candice-lin-in-realms-of-the-real/

© 2026 Art21, Inc.

Art in the Twenty-First Century is made possible with original production funding provided by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Agnes Gund, Melony and Adam Lewis, National Endowment for the Arts, Teiger Foundation, Sarah Arison, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Dealer Tire, Arts, Equity, & Education Fund™, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Elyse and Lawrence B. Benenson, Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia, Tim and Lauren Schrager Family Foundation.

TRANSLATIONS

Translated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community.

Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors: https://amara.org/teams/art21/

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