Dallas artist finds childish joy in making ridiculous art

Potty humor plus a healthy suspicion of free-market enterprise fuel multi-disciplinary artist Joanna Lin.

Working under the name “Soft Surprise,” she recently expanded her world of affordable objets d’(f)arts with her first solo show at Zeke’s Projects in Oak Cliff, open now through May 30.

Don’t expect a traditional gallery experience, though. Instead of colorful canvases or classical sculpture, Lin’s “Stupidity is Timeless” exhibition features a manosphere-inspired light-up mirror, a sputnik lamp studded with hot-dog bulbs and an aluminum “live, laugh, love” sign crafted in a heavy-metal font.

When Lin bills her designs as “the finest stupidity money can buy,” she’s only emphasizing the most bizarre aspects of late-stage capitalism. However, since she doesn’t take her work terribly seriously, and neither should you. 

“I love word art and word play,” she tells us. “My sense of humor stopped developing in middle school. If I want to connect with someone, there are only so many shortcuts, and humor is a shortcut for connection. Some people may not be into it, but I’ve found toilet humor to be universal.” 

Lin, who never met a tagline she didn’t like, came by her quirky mix of art and commerce in a roundabout way. Growing up in Colorado, her Chinese immigrant parents wanted her to take the traditional STEM path until she received Ds in calculus. Already an “eccentric” dresser at a young age, her father realized art school was a better path, so off she went to the Rhode Island School of Design. 

Initially a textile major before switching to film and animation, Lin developed an irregular CV. She launched her career as a graphic designer (a job she hated), designed tampons for the Chinese market, did a stint at a post-production house in New York and assisted sculptor Sean O’Meallie in creating an array of colorful wooden anuses. 

After relocating to Dallas, she worked as a designer for MSCHF Product Studios (best known for the viral Big Red Boots) and novelty home fragrance brand Poo-Pourri. The latter gig helped her realize the power of good marketing.

“I think [that time] coagulated my already existent product tendencies, because I got exposed to that on a real company scale,” Lin recalls. “It did a lot for my brain chemistry and let it go through a puberty of sorts. At Poo-Pourri, I was exposed to this genius product because everyone poops every day — if they’re lucky. But, to think about making money is different from making art objects, and that’s something I’m still exploring.”

Doubling down on her quest to “make dumb products,” a corporate layoff inspired her to transform a small LLC she initially founded to write off her art supplies into a legitimate side hustle. Deciding to make something “fiscally viable,” she pivoted from an initial offering of tube-like knit “sausage sweaters” to a range of 3-D printed foods she describes as grocery “fan art.” These “D.I.Why” objects include nightlights shaped like potatoes, tomatoes and onions, a garlic lamp and lenticular word art proclaiming “Butt” or “Hole” when you view it from different angles.

“One of my north stars for my art practice is mixing something familiar with something unfamiliar,” Lin says. “I was trying to make something at a shoppable price point that would still be fun. If I’m hungry for inspiration, I go walking in the aisles of grocery stores and start reading the boxes because they say such crazy things like ‘nutrition in every bite.’”

Initially marketing her “Affordable Silly Stuff” (A.S.S., for short) to fellow creatives and weirdos at markets like the Dallas Contemporary’s annual book fair, she earned enough to pour her energy into more ambitious pieces, which she ultimately exhibited in her current show. Although Lin says she likes to keep her price points low (most items retail from $16 to $69), this exhibit has allowed her to spread her wings with bigger, more expensive ideas, such as an $888 non-functional Rolex inspired by her husband’s watch-collecting habit, and her $6,666 “Words for Men” video mirror. 

As Lin has recently landed yet another full-time day job, she’s unsure if she’ll have the time to build a show of this scope again, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to stop imagineering — she’s currently ideating an animated film about the adventures of a group of sperm. One thing is certain: whatever she creates under her “Soft Surprise” moniker will remain highly conceptual, if seldom highbrow. 

“I don’t have the pressure to sell [objects] because I did all the hard work to make the e-commerce where it is,” she says. “My solo opening was such a pinch-me moment, but the sperm thing has been chewing at me for five years. I feel like I’ve done every other milestone, so this will be my magnum opus.” 

Stupidity is Timeless is open at Zeke’s Projects every Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. at 2123 Sylvan Ave. through May 30.