| This can’t be a group of hills! From a distance, they look more like mushrooms or fungi sprouting up in the grass following a spring rain. Seen from high up, they look like a group of mollusks, spread out in idle conversation. Fungi never stop evolving; man never ceases to alienate himself from others; space is forever being divided. These are organic objects. Viewer Participation: Viewers are drawn toward the artwork. A child, obviously used to having his photo taken, poses before it. Smiling, his young parents snap his picture. The child changes his pose and smiles shyly. Soon, more people move to and fro among the sculptures. |
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Huang Zhi-Yang
Huang Zhi-Yang, Possessing Numerous Peaks, 2008. Granite, dimensions vary. Location: Times Square, Hong Kong. Courtesy of the artist.This can’t be a group of hills! From a distance, they look more like mushrooms or fungi sprouting up in the grass following a spring rain. Seen from high up, they look like a group of mollusks, spread out in idle conversation.
Fungi never stop evolving; man never ceases to alienate himself from others; space is forever being divided.
These are organic objects.
Viewer Participation:
Viewers are drawn toward the artwork. A child, obviously used to having his photo taken, poses before it. Smiling, his young parents snap his picture. The child changes his pose and smiles shyly. Soon, more people move to and fro among the sculptures. Some people sprawl out near the sculptures, making the small snail-like hills a scene of lassitude. Time passes; people come and go. Before long, a man who was lounging on one of the hills is nowhere to be seen. His place has been taken by an older woman who is taking a picture…
Unfamiliarity:
I stood before my own work at the exhibition, a feeling of unfamiliarity coming over me. It was no longer my own work. The change in venue and the passage of time, together with the changing flow of viewers, have meant uninterrupted change in the work’s relationship with the environment.
Breaking Free:The work is an object, and an object has its own reason for taking up a certain space. Nothing else needs to be said. It has its own reason for breaking free from me.
