On display at Chin’s current art exhibition at the Queens Museum in New York City, “Flint Fit” is an art piece inspired and made possible by the people in Flint, Michigan, who are still reeling from a man-made crisis in which the entire city’s water supply became contaminated with lead.
What better than clothes?
“He started to think about what could he do, as an artist, to not just bring attention to this because the entire nation knows about this issue, but to also create hope,” said Manon Slome, a curator of the exhibition who worked closely with Chin to get his “All Over the Place” exhibition together, to a group during a sun-filled tour at the museum.
Chin worked with residents and community organizers in Flint last year to collect 90,000 empty plastic water bottles over six weeks.
From there, they were converted into REPREVE yarn in Greensboro, North Carolina, the bottles first becoming plastic flakes in a factory before getting blended, melted, and turned into a chip that, when melted, became fabric.
This recycled plastic fiber fabric became garments, designed by New York fashion designer and Michigan native Tracy Reese, back in Flint.
The exhibition is also supposed to signify the “resiliency of the people of Flint,” read a body of text in the exhibit.
The metal leached into the city’s water system in 2014 after a water switch, and to this day, many residents are still relying on bottled water—for which the state now refuses to pay.
Much of Chin’s art revolves around lead poisoning and environmental injustices, including the pieces that come before and after “Flint Fit.” If you go through the museum the way Slome takes guests (the best way), you’ll find the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass before arriving at “Flint Fit.” There, a piece of Chin’s work hides in plain sight among other luxurious stained-glass lamps.
“Flint Fit” represents just one of them.