Mel Chin Myrrha of the Post Industrial Age

Mel Chin (b. 1951, Houston, TX) created Myrrha of the Post-Industrial Age as a flat, vertical reproduction of Gustave Dore’s engraving of Myrrha from Dante’s Divine Comedy. The nude figure is seated on a rectangular pedestal with a total dimension of 27’9” x 21’ x 4’. The outline of the figure is the perimeter of a “cage” that encases a skeleton sculpted in relief, which follows the position of the nude. In effect the piece has what Chin refers to as a “flesh side” and a “bone side” where the pores of the screening are left open.