The Outlines of Our World Are Not So Hard After All Master of Fine Arts Exhibition
Annie Huang
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Dr. Ionat ZurrThe Outlines of Our World Are Not So Hard Afterall
As a person who grew up in a judo-Christian western culture, Annie’s work generously provides me with an aesthetic experience which allows me to acknowledge the cultural constructions imprinted on me, and to aspire to go beyond my binary upbringing into a more animistic perception of the world I’m part of. A world in which everything is dynamic; the void is exploding with activity; and language is a sensorial experience.
People from all diverse backgrounds will intersect with this exhibition in their own unique way and share, as a community, the joy of the senses, the ability to wonder and simply be. Asian and Western signifiers are choreographed together to fill/spill-off ceramic bowls, pieces of a puzzle and fluid scrolls.
Beyond the personal journey, one is invited to think in a more global sense, about the politics involved in the construction of the ‘other’ and ‘foreigner’, using an intersectional lens. It is quite evident, but in subtle way, that Annie’s research for this exhibition was developed during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. When she, as a second-generation Chinese person, had to cope with the growing racism in Australia, the country she considers home.
Annie’s poetic expression is important in times of population mobilisation (either forced and/or by choice), increase in xenophobic language especially on social media and, in general, a growing feeling of unrest. Annie’s call is not a naive call for sameness or a homogenous society, but rather a complex view of a world with diverse cultural beliefs and expressions that are in ongoing transformation.
This is Annie Huang’s Master of Fine Arts Graduation solo show that invites you to immerse in a space of tangible and transient materials and experiences. Annie’s poetic “language” welcomes anyone, no matter their background, to reflect and imagine.
In Between
Projection mapping on MDF laser cut board, 3D and 2D animation.
This ‘story’ presents itself as a strange and dream-like world, flowing silently; waiting, undisturbed by the external world. We travel through a narrative manifested in light and digital pixels, projected, and displaced amongst rigid forms suspended in a dark space. Organic graphite pencil drawings of an abstract landscape morph into a smooth digital environment, a strange but familiar narrative of exploration and space. This work explores a landscape that appears quite simple and predictable. The colours of this landscape appear neutral and not too unfamiliar. However, there is something alien and foreign about this landscape, in its unnerving hues, that are slightly off, the glossy textures that don’t make sense and the strange globular movements that the landforms and sun take on. Within this strange landscape, hand drawn stop motion animations begin to traverse this land an disappear. The shiny surfaces make way to more fragmented graphite pencil animations which were based on physical maps of local Australian streets in which I had lived in as a child. This animation appears almost like topography yet disintegrates and morphs into various ambiguous forms. There is a constant forming and reforming of these lines in which they transform between character like blobs, to landscapes, to simply lines. These ephemeral graphite pencil transformations contrast against the smooth rendered manifestation of digital land. What we observe is a strange and unusual narrative of place, home and the foreigner.
Projection mapping on wheel-thrown stoneware bowls.
This artwork explores the use of ceramic vessels, particularly functional forms such as bowls, cups, and other wares. Functional ceramic forms have existed in This installation features several bowls in an unglazed state, still porous and mutable. They act as open vessels, often linked to connotations being, to feed and to nurture, as well as to the intimate notions of connection and family. This idea of communication and connection between bodies and people are intrinsic to the function of bowls. These vessels present themselves to be peered into, and inside we see a strange form that drifts and ebbs throughout the bowls, passing between the boundaries of each bowl and into the empty space. These forms slowly morph into vague images of people. These images appear foggy and disassembled as they appear and then disintegrate back into the globular graphite forms that are ubiquitous throughout this exhibition.
The animated element of this work explores the connection across generations, time, locality and space that informs that of the second-generation immigrant identity. In this work I present to the audience a series of figurative forms that were drawn in reference to old family photographs of my parents and grandparents in China. These photographs are very familiar to me, yet the reality that they depict is inevitably obscure and alien. This is similarly reflected in my relationship with the people and the place that the photographs document. These figures, along with the space they exist in, continuously evolve and undulate within the bowls.
My mum says I must not leave a single grain.
Ephemeral Translations
Projection mapping on suspended nylon fabric.
Ephemeral Translations considers language and the way we decode and comprehend it. Consisting of three scroll like strips of fabric that are suspended from the ceiling, this work is suggestive of fluidity and ephemerality. Projected onto the strips is a hand drawn stop motion animation that is developed in a graphite pencil like style. The animation depicts a loose narrative of various marks and shapes that continuously form and then unform. These marks and shapes are suggestive of symbols or codes that can potentially, be deciphered. The animation references the way Chinese Ink and Brush painting speaks of poetry, time and space.
The work seeks to explore the complexity of language in the sense that comprehension and non-comprehension can exist simultaneously. One can be both insider to the familiar marks of graphite pencil and material, yet simultaneously alienated in the strangeness of the marks.
