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Theater & art

Boston.com

‘Michael Lin’ connects the ancient, contemporary

By Cate McQuaid

 |  Globe Correspondent  

  April 10, 2012

The starting point of “FreePort [No. 005]: Michael Lin,” the Peabody Essex Museum's ambitious exhibition spotlighting a contemporary artist parachuting into the collection, is a porcelain figurine called “Mr. Nobody.” He is a toothy guy, with striped pantaloons ballooning up to his neck, and he holds a bottle and a cup in front of him. Made in the late 1600s in China, “Mr. Nobody” is one of the first representations of a European in Chinese porcelain.

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