About the Artist

Long-Bin Chen

Taiwanese artist Long-Bin Chen has a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York’s School of Visual Arts. He has been awarded artist fellowship grants from Taiwan’s National Endowment for the Arts and New York’s Joan Mitchell Foundation, as well as the Silver Prize of the Osaka Triennial, Japan; the Visitors Prize of the Six Triennial of Small Scale Sculpture, Stuttgart, Germany; and the12th Shih Hsiung New Artist Prize, Taipei. Chen has completed artist residencies at the 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, California; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont; and the Sarabhai House, Ahmedabad, India. His work has been exhibited widely in the United States, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and Italy and can be found in private collections. His most recent group exhibitions include The Invisible Thread: Buddhist Spirit in Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York; and the Dalai Lama Portrait Project, the Dalai Lama Foundation traveling exhibition (Tokyo, London, Paris, Taipei, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles). Chen is the first international artist to show his work in Kidspace at MASS MoCA.

Reading Sculpture: Long-Bin Chen

October 6, 2005 - January 22, 2006

Taiwan-based sculptor Long-Bin Chen considers himself an “international artistic nomad” who travels the world to create and display his works of art. He transforms old telephone directories, magazines, books, and other printed material into sculptures of human heads, figures, and even representations of hurricanes. He also creates replicas of ancient stone monuments, mummies, weapons, and tools.

Long-Bin’s work addresses a wide range of social, political and personal themes. The artist wants to draw attention to his fear that humans are over-consuming the earth’s resources. He is also troubled by societies throughout the world that are placing less value on books and written words in favor of technology.

Long-Bin is interested in building viewers’ understandings of different cultures. He honors Buddha in his sculpture and refers to China’s cultural icons such as its ancient warriors. He is influenced by the international communities he visits, and incorporates imagery from various nations into his work. Long-Bin revisits artifacts that have become obsolete, reminding us that these materials transmit important cultural information.

His recycled-book sculptures often take on the look of old stone or untreated wood, suggesting his fascination with the materials of ancient artifacts. The printed material Long-Bin selects for his sculptures adds to their meaning. For example, the Buddha heads he created from telephone directories are designed as a symbolic container to hold the names of all the people in the books and bring them under Buddha’s care and compassion.

Long-Bin is the first international artist to show his work at Kidspace. He will conduct art-making workshops with all of the Pre-K - 5th grade students from Greylock, Sullivan, and Brayton Elementary Schools in North Adams this fall.

Kidspace is a collaborative project of the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williams College Museum of Art, and MASS MoCA. Additional funding has been provided by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency); Massachusetts Cultural Council (a state agency); Brownrigg Charitable Trust in memory of Lynn Laitman; W.L.S. Spencer Foundation; Nimoy Visual Artist Residencies Program; and Ruth E. Proud Charitable Trust.

Thanks to Verizon for an in-kind donation of North Adams and Pittsfield phone directories.

Reading Sculpture was organized by Kidspace Director of Exhibitions and Education Laura Thompson with Kidspace Assistant Angela Roberts and Artist Long-Bin Chen. Special thanks to the MASS MoCA staff for all their continued significant role in planning, promoting, designing, and installing the exhibition.