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Sculptor forges ‘flaming’ gold beasts
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Fantastic golden beasts, chimera from Chinese mythology, appear to be made of flames that burn, shimmer and rise upward.
The creatures, made of brass and pure-gold foil are the works of renowned Taiwan artist Huang Zhiyang and part of his exhibition of sculpture and paintings titled “Auspicious Beasts and Three Marks” underway at the Longmen Art Projects on Nanjing Road W.
The sculptures, some as large as 65cm x 115cm, embody the heavens, earth, humans and beasts, said the internationally known Beijing-based artist.
“The beasts are the cumulative result of the human species’ prayers. Human beings are caught in a world of constant turmoil and must somehow adapt and accept their place between heaven and earth.”
The works are composites of lions, dragons, horses and other beasts that appear to be made of molten celestial flames that appear to move.
Every work requires around 20 steps to complete and he covers every piece with scales of pure gold foil that appear to liquefy.
“Look at my hands. Don’t they look like peasant’s hands from all this work?” he said.
The series of sculptures evokes the brushwork on Huang’s paintings on tough layered silk that are dense patterns of tiny, shimmering marks, ticks and dots.
Huang developed the series of sculpture and paintings in his 1,000-square-meter studio in the Beijing suburbs. For the past eight years he has endured Beijing dust storms and has been uprooted in several evictions.
In his paintings with ink and mineral color, several layers of painted silk are stacked and layered so there is visual depth and the underlying images show through. The tiny marks appear to shimmer.
Born in Taipei in 1965, Huang was raised by his grandfather who operated a grocery store. At the age of 10, he discovered a natural talent in drawing and was considered a prodigy. He majored in fine arts at the Chinese Culture University, where he lived a simple, rustic life and grew vegetables and flowers.
By age of 30, Huang was a recognized talent. He took part in the 46th Venice Biennale as the feature artist of the Taiwan Pavilion, held a solo exhibition at the Ludwig Forum for the Arts in Germany, and received awards from the Asian Cultural Council. He was an artist in residence at the San Francisco Headlands Center for the Arts.
Huang was an established artist when he arrived in Beijing eight years ago. “I’m lucky I didn’t experience the hardships of a young unknown artist when he graduated, like some of my peers,” he said.
“Now I love living in Beijing,” Huang said, adding that in the suburbs he learned horseback riding. The exercise cured his painful spinal condition, he said.
“I am always exploring the possibilities of different media, whether sculpture, painting or installation,” he said.
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