Dennis Lin Creates Art Around Loss and Conservation
We caught up with the artist to chat about his creative process, inspirations and upcoming international residency
Earlier this year, Taiwanese-Canadian artist Dennis Lin welcomed visitors into his home studio during the city’s annual DesignTO Festival, offering a rare glimpse into the heart of his practice. For Lin, art isn’t driven by singular moments of inspiration but by an ingrained, intuitive process—one where mind and hand work in harmony. By opening his studio, he invited others into this process, revealing how his internal perceptions take shape as tangible forms. His work, particularly his mobiles, explores the delicate interplay of balance and movement, revealing subtle truths about the physical reality of objects.
This sensitivity to material and form became even more pronounced after a devastating house fire in 2021, which reshaped both his artistic practice and perspective. Working with salvaged materials, Lin began to weave personal history into his sculptures, transforming remnants into pieces imbued with memory and resilience. His approach reflects a deep awareness of environmental impact while also drawing on his Taiwanese roots and Canadian life—using material and nostalgia to echo the immigrant experience and the universal longing for home.
We caught up with the artist for a deep dive into his creative process—discussing his inspirations and East Asian residency in the works.
What inspired you to pursue art?
Art making has always been embedded in me—it wasn’t a single moment or event that led me here. It’s my natural resting place, where my hands and mind are always engaged. Making art is an exercise in deepening my relationship with myself and the world around me. It helps me find peace in that connection and in the experience of being human.
How would you describe your approach to creating?
Intuitive, meditative and methodical at times.
What motivated your gravitation toward mobiles as a form of sculpture?
I like that mobiles challenge and demonstrate these very simple physical properties—and sometimes defy our understanding of them. I enjoy the flexibility of the compositions that are created, and just the sheer sense of wonder and weightlessness that can be achieved by balance. There are so many answers that mobiles give us as they move through space. It’s our world that causes an effect on their movement and the movement being a consequence of our actions.
What was the most challenging sculpture you’ve created that felt equally rewarding in the end?
Every installation is different. Some are more challenging in the fabrication process and others are more challenging in the logistical and installation process. Recently, though, being able to connect directly with the community that my art serves in the healthcare-related installations has been especially rewarding.
Is there a specific medium you enjoy working on the most?
I go through phases—moments where I’m more open to some things than others. I enjoy sitting with things, taking time to acquaint myself. And as I move through my career, allowing the medium to guide me through the process.
What is it about salvaged materials that evoke an emotional response from you?
Something otherwise lost. I’m naturally interested in the byproduct of large scale manufacturing processes. Equal parts fascination at the ingenuity of our capabilities as a species, and equal parts overwhelming guilt and terror of our capabilities as a species. The sheer volume of waste from almost every industry is perplexing. This has always been in my vocabulary and nature: to look for opportunities whether it’s dumpster diving or actually creating relationships with manufacturers and suppliers to divert materials away from landfill.
In other works, I’ve salvaged materials (such as from my house fire) like incense sticks. This is almost an embedded part of my practice–the sourcing, gathering, harvesting of materials and ultimately processing. It’s clear that there would be an emotional connection from these particular realms—the embodied energy that these materials carry are incomprehensible.
You hosted an open house during this year’s DesignTO Festival. What made you want to participate in the festival and invite people into such a personal space?
It’s nice to connect with the community that I’ve been in since the beginning of my career. To be able to offer our space to people, to engage in conversation, and ultimately share my own work. There are fewer and fewer artist studios in this area (Parkdale) now, so to be able to participate and share is wonderful.
What can we expect next from you this year?
I’d really like time to dive into a few specific pieces that I’ve been building up to in the past few years, although I’m not sure where that will take me yet. I’ll start the year off in Hong Kong on an install and then to Taiwan for some projects. Later in the year, I’ll be participating in the Nakanojo Biennale. I’ll be spending a month in Japan creating work in a small prefecture in the mountains.
