Lin May Saeed

Biene

Lin May Saeed’s Biene, was the first–ever institutional exhibition of the artist's work.

Spanning a narrative of human-animal relationships from the prehistoric to the present day, Saeed’s commission of sculptures included a pantheon of carved, life-sized animals, alongside a steel gate sculpture, painted reliefs and a large backlit paper cut-out. Saeed’s work generates tensions between themes of oppression and liberation. She directly confronts our conflicted relationships with animals – who are at times characterised as companions, votives, an exploited labour force or food source – and by extension, our impact on and interactions with the environment.

Saeed’s sculptures have a provisional, naïve quality. Distinctly ‘un-monumental’, her works often reveal processes of construction and preservation, both within the forms she produces and in the ways in which they are presented. Her materials more closely recall those used for preliminary models, with alabaster marble exchanged for carved polystyrene blocks. Equally, the slender crates in which her sculptures are suspended for transport and storage recall cages, which are re-purposed as plinths for display.

The artist’s cross-cultural narratives draw from both Western traditions and her Jewish-Arab heritage, traversing references as divergent as the Animal Liberation Front, the Die Brücke movement, and ancient Mesopotamia. Her protagonists include the prophet Yahya, the mythological heroine Brunhilde, and Moschophoros, who Saeed re-casts as masked, chain–breaking animal rights activist. Often displaced in time, Saeed’s subjects gesture to atavistic animisms, yet equally imagine post-human conditions in which delimitations of gender, place and species are fluid, if not dissolved.

Supported by Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and Studio Voltaire Benefactors.

Lin May Saeed lived and worked in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include: Lulu Exhibition Space, Mexico City, MX (2017); Nicolas Krupp Galerie Basel, Switzerland, CH (2016); Jacky Strenz Galerie, Frankfurt/Main, DE (2016); and The Skyscraper/a horizontal view, Julius Caesar, Chicago, US (2015).
Group exhibitions include: Wildnis/ Wilderness, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, DE (2018); Splendor Solis, The Approach, London, UK (2018); Predatory behaviour, T293 Gallery, Rome, IT (2018); Class Reunion – Works from the Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann Collection, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, AT (2018); Neuer Norden Zürich, Zürich, CH (2018); IWBYD II Animal Liberation in der aktuellen Kunst, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Dortmund, DE (2018); Metamorphosis (curated by Chus Martínez), Museo Castello di Rivoli, Turino, IT (2018); La Fin de Babylone, KölnSkulptur #9, Cologne (2017); Animal Lovers, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst/NGBK Berlin, DE (2016); 9th Berlin Biennale, DE (2016), Akademie der Künste Berlin, DE (2016); X. Bienal de Nicaragua, Fundación Ortiz Gurdian, NI (2016).
Installation view:
Lin May Saeed, Biene, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Studio Voltaire. Photo: Andy Keate
Individual works:
Lin May Saeed, Cambrian Relief, 2016. Styrofoam, paint, copper, wood, transparent paper, sand. 170 x 250 x 35 cm
Lin May Saeed, The Liberation of Animals from their Cages XXI, 2018. Steel. 194 x 110 cm x 8 cm Lin May Saeed, Antispe Kongress, 2008. Poster. 30 x 34 cm
Lin May Saeed, Bee, 2018. Cardboard, transparent paper, strip lights. 259 x 260 x 50 cm Lin May Saeed, Auf dem Floß/On the float, 2007. Styrofoam, paint, steel. 140 x 264 x 58 cm
Lin May Saeed, Zenon im Boot/ Zenon in Boat, 2005. Jesmonite, lacquer, styrofoam, paint, wooden shelf, plants. 35 x 90 x 34 cm
Lin May Saeed, Agri Relief, 2017. Styrofoam, acrylic paint, wood, steel, cord, paper. 56 x 75 x 11 cm
Lin May Saeed, Ameisenbär/Anteater, 2018. Styrofoam, steel, acrylic paint, charcoal, pinewood frame. 130 x 224 x 49 cm
Lin May Saeed, Serval, 2018. Styrofoam, steel, acrylic paint, charcoal, pencil, pinewood frame. 154 x B 155 x T 34.5 cm
Lin May Saeed, Kalb/Calf, 2018. Styrofoam, steel, acrylic paint, charcoal, clay, pinewood frame. 183 x 216 x 80 cm
Lin May Saeed, Tüpfelhyäne/Spotted hyena, 2018. Styrofoam, steel, acrylic paint, charcoal, jute, wood, pinewood frame. 164 x 123 x 40.5 cm

Lin May Saeed

Biene

A limited edition Risograph print by Lin May Saeed