Spotlight on Artist Noah Chin

Welcome to The Elective’s digital art museum, dedicated to the incredible work of AP Arts students. Each week we highlight a work or series created in one of the AP Arts concentrations—AP 2-D Art and Design, 3-D Art and Design, and AP Drawing (the AP Program also offers Art History and Music Theory)—as well as a statement from the artist (and, occasionally, their teacher).

From the first cave paintings to contemporary breakthroughs in virtually reality, art, in all its forms, has been a crucial way for people to process, make sense of, comment on, and grapple with the world around them. After more than a year of life in a pandemic, AP Art students have risen to the challenge of processing and making sense of the challenges—and opportunities—that have come from this perilous time. The work they submitted in their final portfolios is explicitly of the moment. It’s often challenging and provocative, but always insightful, inspiring, and expansive.

This week we feature textiles made by Noah Chin from Oakwood School in Morgan Hill, California.

Here’s Noah’s statement on the work:

“During the pandemic, I began to notice that covid-19 was not the only deadly disease to ravage society, since many other social issues are equally, if not more widespread. My art pieces depict different pandemics through the use of ubiquitous and repetitious elements. I was dedicated to using only fabric, paper, rope, and other materials usually correlated to fashion since people often wear these issues with them, it is their identity and part of their character.

“As a politically-involved individual, I felt inspired to encapsulate the political warfare within the United States in a two-piece pajama set called Game Of War. This outfit represents the chaos of the 2020 presidential elections, as well as the zenith of American division. My custom playing card deck made of shiny pearl cardstock paper features democratic and republican cards, and drawings of the Capitol building, Supreme Court, and of the White House. Within all of these institutions, there are left-wing and right-wing politicians constantly battling with one another. The politicians’ names are printed on each card. The mailbox-shaped purses represent the partisan debate over mail-in ballots. The vibrant red crossbody strap signifies the virality and widespread nature of political division since it features infectious-like balls meant to represent a virus.

“The pajama aspect of the outfit represents the never ending emotional and physical exhaustion that I experience when thinking about US politics. I fall asleep completely cocooned in the stress of political warfare- knowing that when I awake the next day, the same partisan tension and division will only continue.

“My blue garment, Arctic Defrost, features a plethora of ruffles that mimic the colossal waves that are formed when icebergs melt and fall into the sea. The size and nature of the outfit engulf the model, to convey the idea of drowning. I intentionally used plush fabric in order to mimic absorbents and conservation efforts meant to combat our rising sea levels. Since, during production, the plush fabric literally absorbed the fabric dye/water - an indicative process of present-day efforts to stop arctic melting.

“I formulated my ideas for the arctic project when watching a David Attenborough docu-series about climate change. In one of the episodes, Attenborough shows an alarming scene depicting the arctic melting from the perspective of a helicopter. As someone who aligns their lifestyle to be as environmentally friendly as possible, I felt obligated to convey the gravity of climate change and its impact on our planet through a physical representation.”

Here’s Noah’s teacher Adam Hubbard on Noah’s work:

“It is with great pleasure and delight to have had Noah in my class as an AP student. He has gone above and beyond my expectations by beautifully blending his love for Fashion, Digital Design, and Fine Arts. Noah has a true gift for creating artwork that is Interdisciplinary in nature and politically charged and poignant for our time. Noah has shown tremendous growth and maturity as an artist and he has truly set the bar for AP Art and Design at Oakwood. Even after this pandemic, Noah was able to extract certain political events and uniquely invent a story that is heartfelt and moving.”

And here are a few other works from Noah’s portfolio:

Student and teacher statements are lightly edited for length and clarity.