Creating Art as a Personal Breakthrough
Initiated and organized by The Bridge Arts Foundation, the 'Beyond Borders' Global Young Artist Open-Call Exhibition is currently being held at The Scholart Selection Art Space in San Gabriel, California, and will run until December 31, 2023.
Bridge Arts Foundation's Art Director, Tia Xu, engaged in a conversation about the exhibition and art with several artists participating in this exhibition. In this interview, we have the pleasure of speaking with Chinese artist Shizun Huang.
—— Q&A ——
Tia Xu: Could you please share your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in art?
Shizun Huang: My encounter with art was a matter of chance. To some extent, the idea of crafting a stylized life through creation, thereby achieving self-development, has always been appealing to me. I worked as an artist's assistant, a professional manager, and also in art institutions. However, these jobs were mostly unrelated to art itself, focusing on operations and management. These life experiences gradually led to self-reflection, and I started to think that maybe I could create something myself. Naturally, this accumulated a desire for self-expression.
Tia: What does "Beyond Borders" mean to you, and how does your work in this exhibition either reflect or challenge this concept?
Shizun: As far as creation is concerned, for me, it represents a personal breakthrough. It's like I don't want to just immerse myself in a predefined societal role and live according to the dictates of social discipline, so I turn to art. Many friends of mine don't understand why I gave up a stable life to become an artist, but I feel that this is an attempt that holds more possibilities for me than my previous life. The completion of each artwork is, for me, a way to push beyond my own abilities. This includes experimenting with different mediums, forms, languages, spaces, and even financial aspects. The work I'm showcasing in this exhibition, "Faith," is a sculpture that extends from conceptual installation art. The process of bean sprouts breaking through actually reflects my own desires – the desire to break free from the gravity of everyday life and strive to move from one interface to another, even though this process is challenging.
Faith, 150 x 150 x 450 cm, Stainless steel, 2022, photo courtesy of artist.
Faith, 40 x 40 x 120 cm, Stainless steel, 2023, photo courtesy of artist.
Tia: Can you tell us the story behind a specific artwork from the exhibition?
Shizun: The symbol of "bean sprouts" holds a significant thread in my personal creative journey. In 2013, I created an experimental piece where I placed beans between two bricks, and watered them to allow the beans to sprout, revealing an incredible force during the process – the ability to overturn the bricks pressing down on them. In my first solo exhibition project in 2019, I expanded this experiment: I built a wall using bricks and placed a layer of beans underneath it. During the exhibition, the beans slowly sprouted and eventually toppled the entire wall. The underlying spirit of this experiment continued in many of my subsequent works, culminating in visualizing this "tiny force" as the sculpture piece "Faith" that I'm showcasing now.
Another Brick In The Wall, 2019, photo courtesy of artist.
Tia: How does your cultural background influence your art?
Shizun: I would rather say that it's living with the intention that influences my artistic life. Those things in life that are often overlooked or things we conventionally consider impossible, but actually happen at a microscopic scale, invisible to the naked eye, undergoing constant changes with the flow of time. It's like "bean sprouts." If it weren't for my initial art experiment, perhaps I wouldn't have discovered that seemingly tiny things can hold such immense power.
Tia: How do you view the role of art in promoting cultural understanding and bridging divides, as emphasized in the exhibition's theme?
Shizun: Art holds the potential to transcend language and geographical boundaries, creating an aesthetic that calls forth a sense of communication. In the current context of ongoing conflict in Europe and the Middle East, this communication is particularly necessary for me. Just as my work "Faith" presents, the power of life and the desire for growth are pursuits that are shared by all of us.
Mom, do you call me an orphan? , 2022, photo courtesy of artist.
Tia: Can you share a particular piece of feedback or a comment from an art critic, art professional, or even the audience that has profoundly impacted you?
Shizun: The curator Duan Shaofeng once commented on this sculpture: "When the bean sprout, originally representing the persistence of life and warmth in the exhibition hall, transforms into a large stainless steel sculpture in the urban public space, the vitality of the bean sprout is highlighted in terms of medium and scale. 'Faith' is not only a monument to the vitality of the tiny bean sprout but also Huang Shizun's affirmation and belief in his personal growth experience."
ABOUT OPEN CALL EXHIBITION PROGRAM
Bridge Arts Foundation's "Beyond Borders" Open Call Exhibition Installation View, Photo: © The Scholart Selection / Luna Hao
Bridge Arts Foundation's Open Call Exhibition Program is designed to provide support for early-career artists. For its inaugural edition, the "Beyond Borders" Open Call Exhibition has thoughtfully selected 18 talented artists from a pool of approximately 350 submissions, employing a selection process that involves art professionals. "Beyond Borders" opens from October 14th to December 31st, 2023.
ABOUT ARTIST
Shizun Huang
Born in 1992 in Ningde City, Fujian Province, China, Shizun Huang lives and works in Xiamen now.
His works mainly include photography, video, sculpture and installation art. He attempted to visualize the passage of time through continuous movement, visualizing the invisible time. In this visualization process, he elongates the timeline of behavior and ultimately reflects it in the evolution of space.