Wiena Lin Imagines a Lion of the Future

Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Wiena Lin created Future Lion for us in celebration of the Lunar New Year. This interactive art installation whimsically contemplates the future of Chinese culture as the development of technology and our dependence on it reaches a climax.

Future Lion depicts a moment from a Lunar New Year parade in the near future, with Pearl River Mart’s guests at the center of it all. The heart of installation is a lion mask from our archive, restored as it would be in the artist’s projection of the coming decades in which artificial intelligence has surpassed human intelligence, resulting in an abrupt halt in engineering and industrial production.

Despite the widespread depletion of natural resources, we strive to maintain the rituals which connect us to our history and community, preserving sacred objects with found materials, primarily non-biodegradable waste from consumer goods. Naturally occurring crystals which have formed around discarded electronic components are particularly prized for their mystical properties and are reserved for the most revered objects and occasions, such as the one captured here.

Lin has a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in Fine Arts and English Literature. She is an art director and marketing strategist with expertise in new technology and immersive installation. She strives to create stunning sensory experiences in the physical world by extending the expressiveness of fine arts and design via new technological mediums.

You’re invited to explore and share the artist’s vision of the future from January 28 through March 12 in our mezzanine gallery.