We take a look at what visitors can expect from the new commission from artist Candice Lin, set to go on display at the gallery from the 8th October until the 1st March 2026.
The Whitechapel Gallery is to showcase a new commission from artist Candice Lin (b. 1979, Concord, Massachusetts, US) including a architectural installation.
Candice Lin is an artist who works across a variety of disciplines and media, including installation, sculpture, painting and video, to create multisensorial environments that tell stories about the historic roots of contemporary political circumstances.
Those visiting g/hosti will head into a circular labyrinth made from curved, painted cardboard panels that depict a fantastical world populated by animals and other creatures. The structure is set to tower above head height, while cut-out sections and undulating edges offer glimpses of spaces beyond.
Throughout a series of stop-motion films displayed on phone-sized screens are placed throughout the labyrinth. The hand-drawn animations feature mythological animals, groups of people marching, a person caring for another person who is dying and an ‘ouroboros’, an ancient alchemical symbol showing a snake devouring its own tail. Lin relates this symbol to cyclical time and repeated history.
The final element of the exhibition is a fairy-tale-like text inscribed in graphite around the outer circumference of the room. Often using visceral metaphors, the text explores Lin’s preoccupations with a haunting or uncanny loss of perspective she observes in the contemporary world. It also unlocks the meaning of the exhibition title ‘g/hosti’, which references ghosts, but also contains the roots of the words ‘guest’, ‘host’, ‘hostile’ and the Old English word ‘gæst’ meaning ‘stranger’.
Lin developed the work during a period of profound upheaval – notably the inauguration of Donald Trump’s second presidency and the devastating wildfires in her community of Altadena, which coincided in January 2025. Lin is an Associate Professor of Art at UCLA where she continues to witness the ongoing police repression and disciplining of the student protest movement. All these experiences inform the sense of disorientation evoked in the installation.
Explaining, the artist said: “The idea of being lost inside of a painting that is also a labyrinth comes out of many different experiences of the last year and a half: witnessing the genocide in Gaza live-streamed to our phones and the dissonant feelings of grief, shock, guilt at my complicity as an American, and a feeling of smallness and helplessness in the face of such overwhelming inhumane horror. It came from the bureaucratic, disciplinary and insidious way the University that I work for also dealt with the student encampment and the student protest movement through police brutality and the surreal implementation of ‘free speech zones’ and other absurd policies.”
To find out more visit: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/candice-lin-g-hosti/