Peet, Yin

Other Names: Hsieh; 謝茵

"During the past 10 years in addition to moving to America, experiencing its immense sociocultural diversity, and studying Western figurative sculpture in New York City and completing graduate school in Massachusetts, I also lived and worked in Nepal for over 4 years and studied South Asian art intensely under the influence of Nepalese artists and my husband, a cultural anthropologist specializing in South Asian cultures. During my four and a half years of living in Nepal I studied and practiced South Asian Buddhist art and closely observed the relationship of art and religion in the life of Nepali and Tibetan artisans. My observations lead me to conclude that Buddhist art is an 'act of devotion' rather than a visual presentation of the aesthetics of forms, which in many ways is what Western artists' ultimate spiritual pursuit in art making is.

These experiences have steered me away from working purely on the aesthetics of visual art and more toward working intellectually to bring my Asian roots up to a modern social context, and furthermore to evoke cross-cultural consciousness and, ultimately, to build cultural bridges, particularly between Asian and other cultural groups in America. For me art is a proposal for a new life that emerges from past thoughts and happenings. It is functional, not for my kitchen or living room, but for the pursuit of hope and for paving the way for my next step in life."

Yin Peet, Artist Statement

Gallery of Selected Works

Corpo Feat Container Man (2005) Zen Garden (2001) Egg (1998) Human and Brick (1998) Sculpting Jazz (1995) Monologue (1994) Fruit Muse Live (1992) The Game (1991)