Artist Statement
Ben Alderman, also known as Lin Wen-Ben, is an interdisciplinary artist exploring ready-made materials, images, and digital culture. His practice embraces experimental mark-making and process-driven approaches that question the notion of creating in a cultural vacuum. Rather than isolating his work from cultural signifiers, Wen-Ben incorporates and re-contextualizes images and objects to subvert their original intent, exploring themes of identity, culture, and societal constructs.
Through the juxtaposition of materials, symbols, and performative actions, Wen-Ben interrogates the assumptions tied to cultural artifacts, transforming them into painterly and conceptual expressions. His works examine how familiar forms can be disrupted and repurposed, challenging viewers to reconsider the ideologies and narratives embedded in everyday imagery.
In recent inquiries, Wen-Ben has been exploring expanded animation as a process-driven medium that integrates ready-made imagery and cultural signifiers. By unraveling and critiquing embedded narratives, his animations push beyond traditional storytelling frameworks, merging animation with sculptural elements and poetic gestures. This direction reflects his broader practice of examining the evolving relationships between image, identity, and contemporary culture, where animation becomes both a medium and a conceptual framework for nuanced, layered expression.
Bio
Ben Alderman, also known as Lin Wen-Ben, is a London-based moving image artist specializing in experimental animation. He holds an MA in Experimental Animation from the Royal College of Art and a BFA in Fine Art from the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. As a Taiwanese American artist, his work has been showcased at international film festivals and galleries, including the London Short Film Festival, MONSTRA Lisbon Animation Festival, New American Painting, and the Leon Gallery