10 Questions with Wu-Peng Huang
Huang Wu-Peng had a very similar life to other students when he was studying; the only difference is that he discovered the concept of value had come from the difference between things at his early stage. Since he had the advantage of time as a free student, his opportunity cost had been placed on practicing particular capabilities. From a view of the Taiwanese experience, it could be said that half of the Taiwanese life students were based on the mandatoriness of others, and the other part of it is achieved by chance. Huang Wu-Peng obtained the concept of visual logic when he realized art methods in an accidental opportunity; his college life had also been set as a freestyle in order to increase his vision. After his time in school, he participated in his experiences of exhibitions and tried to collaborate with foreign organizations.
Wu-Peng Huang - Portrait
ARTIST STATEMENT
In Huang Wu-Peng's opinion, art methods are a container that keeps the quality of an author's own mental projection. Audiences are able to review an artwork to understand the "mindset" of an artist and its related content. For example, does a painting of a landscape made by the hand of an old master have a subjective vision? Follow the question to think, there is a phenomenon that could reasonably be found, it is that the objective form of things is difficult to realize by a person when he watches the landscape through a container because the reality he watched was based on a physical condition that allows him to discover, and how a person uses his physical capabilities is also influenced by his mental conditions. From the perspective of cultural geography, the so-called landscape is actually a humanistic topic, which means how we observe a landscape records the history of human activities. It is not simply limited to landscapes. How a character is expressed is also influenced by the subjectivity of a person, which could also easily be found in many paintings. As an obvious example, the characters within are artificially "epilated".
In conclusion, the fact that art methods have been regarded as a container explains its neutral characteristic: the preference for value is barely endowed by a man. When we go back to the topic of Huang Wu-Peng's art, the audience can discover a tendency toward idealism, which tells us that even if the significance of an object with the feature of realism is also related to what is beyond its container. In other words, the reality a person can have produced under subjective conditions. Thus, his subjective cogitation is reasonably the objective world in which he lives.
Di-659, Ink and Acrylic on Hemp Paper, 167x154 cm, 2022 © Wu-Peng Huang
INTERVIEW
First of all, let's talk about yourself. Who are you, and how did you develop into the artist you are today?
Let's see this question as a sentence that finds a factor in becoming an artist in my personal history. For a better understanding of what drives an individual into the proposition of art, we must seek the very beginning of this matter by methods of traditional narratology. My name is Wu-Peng Huang, and incidentally, if we call the name according to our cultural tradition, it will be called Huang Wu-Peng as the family name first. As you can see, the name has three syllables as a set of a full name, but it can actually be separated into three parts for a few isolated explanations. The three parts of a name could be understood as a process of combining Family name - Generation name - Name of the person, which could be considered as a stable structure. Generation name is a literature container that marks a person into a specific generation in a family or a clan; for example, my generation name is Wu 武, and my male cousins will share the same generation name as our generation. The third part of my name is Peng 芃, which was selected from the classical edition of the poetry Shijing; it was used as a literary device in the book to describe how plants grow exuberantly; it was how my parents wished that I could grow as these plants do. As for my family name, according to my genealogy book, the ancestors of the Huang 黃 clan originated from two sources. One was the Huang state, which once ruled as a local autonomous power under the feudalism of the Zhou dynasty. When the Huang state fell, the people who lived in the state picked Huang as a mark with their name to remember it. Another historical source was a savage clan who worshipped a kind of yellow bird as their totem, Huang; the yellow was how they had been called.
Speaking of how I develop my art talent, rather than the proposition, the true question is, do I really have a talent for it? I am not a relevant scholar; thus, to comment on it is not my responsibility. Still, there is one thing we can learn from the question. My father gave me some classical books when I was 10 or 11 years old; these books are mostly editions that contain literary works written by many literates who lived in various Chinese empires. Also, those texts were written in classical Chinese, which was performed as a written method for those who are capable of reading in their office. If we agree art is not limited to visual forms, then it was the first time I had seen art domains, and after that, I practiced literary works for a few years. The ancient Chinese believed the power of a painting could influence an age after 500 years, but the power of a well-written text could become greater than this; they insisted that it was limitless. My mother didn't believe such an opinion; she regarded knowing literature as lacking specific purposes, and the written style had also been considered difficult to understand by regular people; therefore, in order to increase my communicative ability, I met a painter through her social connections, it was the reason I practiced how to paint until now. I didn't think that it would influence my life into a worse situation. Thus, I did not propose a disagreement at that time.
Di-660, Ink and Acrylic on Hemp Paper, 167x153 cm, 2022 © Wu-Peng Huang
When and how did you start getting involved with art and painting?
Except for my drawing teacher, the first time I was involved with making art was when I met painter Yung-Cheng Tsai, who is a member of the Tai Yang Art Society. When I walked into a studio as a high school student, He and his mentor, Yung-Fu Yang, encouraged me to make a constructive voice through art methods; they also brought me materials for oil painting; it was the starting point to act like a painter. Honestly, I am not very sure how to describe the art style of the first batch I made; it was made with intuitive approaches that were less focused on techniques. I thought the way with intuition would not obtain much experience in my art skills. Therefore, my next move was to study a known technique; Vincent Van Gogh's method was my option at this point. I think the reason why he had been chosen was that I sensed that he built his technique on his own; he does have foreign paintings to learn something he might need but doesn't actually have similar paintings to compare with; this had been considered as a good example to improve myself from his experience. In fact, I was wrong. I didn't share the same conditions; thus, a similar result would not have been obtained from this process. Fortunately, I still gained a basic benefit from studying it; it was how to use my tool.
After Vincent Van Gogh's method, I successively studied a few different styles in art history. When they provided experiences to me, I believed that I would get closer to what I should do. One day, as with my regular schedule, the turning point threw me into my target list of art. The Sunflower Student movement had been protesting a certain act of law made by the Taiwanese government. I can't say that I was fortunate or not; the student group its leadership was organized in one of the universities I studied. I grasped the opportunity to throw a question to myself, "Why not take a real matter into art creation?". By the idea, I had seen reality as potential as materials. It is not to say whether we agree with the movements or not. What people advocate doesn't matter with what we are doing; how things show into our lives does matter with how we measure them and what kind of value we can find from them. After this political issue, in order to improve myself further, I wrote narratives of Di, the powerful who can influence the present behind, using it to practice my skill, and the name also was the origin of how I bring a title for my paintings. At the end of this question, I should express my gratitude to my drawing teacher, Yu-Ting Lai, who taught me when I was a student.
Di-661, Ink and Acrylic on Hemp Paper, 167x156 cm, 2022 © Wu-Peng Huang
Di-664, Ink and Acrylic on Hemp Paper, 166x156 cm, 2022 © Wu-Peng Huang
What, for you, is the most enjoyable part of your art?
Now, we finally reach a conversation. In my part of the practice of art, I temporarily tend to question and practice the proposition: whether a painting is allowed to have a function beyond being observed. To obtain the conclusive result, I must complete several conditions related to art and the implementational subject highlighted under the proposition. My subject is art application. To apply art into specific objects, this process divides the subject into three gradual dimensions: Handmade - Digital edition - Production. In the first dimension, we have to keep our brush to make art content for the first step; in order to increase the adaptability of paintings, we will need a color area as a background, then add some decorations with our contents. This will at least guarantee our final result as a comfortable piece for human eyes because most human eyes adapt areas more than objects; if we place objects too close, human eyes will recognize them as a wild plane. In a short summary of the process, the operator must notice the effect between areas and objects. In the second dimension, when our handmade artifacts are completed, we will operate their digital files after having them by scan or photography. Crop our selected digital painting into a basic component, then repeatedly combine our components according to the geometric shape we prefer. Finally, we will have a larger component for our pattern of design, which is to use for fulfilling our digital files. In the third dimension, we can begin to apply our files to normal manufacturing productions; any products that can be printed with an art style on their appearance are available on a making list. With appropriate working processes such as sewing and fixation, as many as it may need, a product with a certain quality will be possible to bring out. And what is the difference between my version of working and the usual services that apply to a ready-made object? Basically, there are two points. First, my paintings have been edited according to the needs of my design. Secondly, I spend some resources to participate in the process from the beginning of my project.
To do such a thing like that there is always one point bothering me from different angles, which made me not change my content overly; this is also the question some audiences may ask: How do we make a balance when we consider art and design at the same time? At first glance, this question seems nonsense because both subjects require the same conditions of working as using a pen to draw; in fact, it is a typical misunderstanding. How we design relies on specific conditions such as size and measurements; even if mere flowers decorate a piece of clothing, their size is still needed as much as we obtain. However, for contemporary art, the size of the contents within and techniques, as many we may list, are not really important; operators have been regarded as representing a kind of value; the matter is how an operator convinces others of what has value. Back to the topic of balance, I am simply trying to bring a result that can achieve different needs to a certain degree, organizing my contents from tiny changes to huge ones. It will take time for me to make a little difference in my own habit of making, but I feel it is stable and controllable.
Let's talk about your work. Can you explain what your idea is and how you are working on it?
Continue on the topic that was revealed at the end of question 2. After some artworks about Di had been made, there was a feeling I tried to make clear: Is it all I made that has to be based on other literary texts? Or should a painting be simple and rely on itself? Keeping this idea in mind, I gradually weakened the influence of literature on my paintings, only keeping some forms as symbols and remaining where it was to make a different point for my visual language. At a very close moment, I was given more chances to improve my design. Thus I knew what kind of conditions were needed; these two factors shaped my current style. For the current artworks, I perceive that objective order is based on people's cogitative subjectivity, as what has been seen as what has been narrated; they are reflected and presented according to how this person recognizes reality. The process of recognizing is also not one-sided; it is just normally influenced by the interaction with what is beyond him. For example, a person's viewpoint determines how he treats the world, and the feedback from it further stimulates his viewpoint. Suppose our audience thinks this view is provocative. In that case, there is a scientific theory can be shared: Scientists observed the action of the nervous system from 1920 to 1930, and they discovered that the physiological mechanism of their subjects stimulated their nerves into specifically physiological actions when they saw researchers execute relevant actions, the scientists referred this process as Conditioned reflex, which means that the physiological mechanism has a kind of tendency that links specific nervous actions with external stimulus, further to form inner memories. Somehow, this theory is similar to my art view, which is why I share it with my sentence.
Rather than interpreting the mechanism within a being by substantial actions, if we take a step closer to our mental status, it will provide more conditions for us to reference my version of the story in my paintings. I believe the most noticeable stimulus is suffering, and the only point we should pay attention to is: What could be the content of this suffering? The so-called suffering is not only meant to be negative, bloody torments but also includes tiny pains that are pervasive in our regular life. It can even be as minor as hunger for lacking a dinner or sands pushed by strong winds to blow our body. We think that these minor events are unimportant, on the other hand, our body naturally regards them as a signal of pain, using it to drive us into a certain action. It is precisely that the pain fulfills our life and encourages us to seek what we need, and finally, the cogitation within our mind has been constructed on its base. As for what is objective and subjective for how a person views, sometimes, that is the matter of how we interpret and observe from which angles, what kind of feedback we obtain from external factors, And whether we are capable enough for doing something or not. This is why reality is subjective in my statement, it never plays its character as a neutral statue as it stands still, instead, highly involved in our every move. In other words, we are not our only master; who or what masters us has been formed by many factors. If this kind of statement has to be presented with one short sentence for our audience, suffering makes us complete.
Di-665, Ink and Acrylic on Hemp Paper, 168x154 cm, 2022 © Wu-Peng Huang
Where do you find inspiration for your work, and what is your creative process like?
Honestly, I don't think there is a so-called inspiration that people need; instead, in order to reduce contingency in art creation, keeping periodic work schedules should be a thinkable option. If we reluctantly seek a similar type of inspiration in art creation, I think something realistic could be good for this assumption. Since life is the only direction for those who live with it, it will provide a higher sense than a common sensory experience. As you see by now, that was my first step to participate in my own improvement; only through the correct direction will I to embrace a noticeable result. Life is never being wrong; this wrong does not mean never making mistakes from the moral high ground; it is simply narrated as existing. Life always exists no matter whether we are included or not; it is the reason that it plays its character as a guide for us, in my view.
If we abandon such a huge picture of how we regard art from life, then the issues of inspiration will be turning back to us, and we will be forced to ask, "What do we really pursue through art methods?" for ourselves. There are indeed many levels we are allowed to pursue according to our skills and how little beyond our imaginations when we recognize who we really are and what kind of moves we can take, as reputation, wealth, achievement as many possibilities may come. For myself, I try to provide a way to realize a certain value in my artworks; through this value, we are able to perceive that paintings could be applicable to making objects with mature methods or crafts if our audience says that it seems I am not a mere painter when I am in my working schedule. I responded: Perhaps, at least, I am trying to learn how to implement my project.
You work around the concept of landscape. Can you tell us more about it? How does it influence your practice, and how do you use it?
If our vision was based on how we perceive what is beyond ourselves, then the true appearance of the landscape is as obvious as what has been understood as it is displayed through the person's language; the landscape is merely a figurative device for understanding his mental vision. In other words, the reality we have is constructed on how we see it and reveals what we understand by our moves. For example, why did ancient people believe that there were stars dominating them as gods from above? we can find it in their paintings or literature. Because that was their world and how they lived. Even if we can say that it was their society which constructed itself as a ruling machine controlled by various administrative supervisors, this kind of fact is possible to be reflected on artifacts, as remains of history as what we are doing today.Therefore, we have a good reason to say that the landscape essentially acts as a container that contains what can be analyzed by viewers.
How do we use a painting that plays as a container? If we regard paintings as a kind of medium between reality and falsity, their container feature still brings contactive guidance for improving our cogitation; whether this is possible depends on how we think of art and what dimension our resources and imagination can reach. We usually take art to explore historical events and then link the so-called truth with a certain scarcity of value, thereby promoting universal education and potential wealth within and without the market. If we further take a step forward, a powerful hand is capable of creating a new tradition or modernness, as a rising wave purges approval of something old from people and then places a goal to highlight its purpose. As long as there is a need to promote something, art always provides a tool to achieve specific intentions. As for my personal uses, I have already answered it.
Di-673, Ink and Acrylic on Hemp Paper, 167x154 cm, 2023 © Wu-Peng Huang
Di-675, Ink and Acrylic on Hemp Paper, 165x155 cm, 2024 © Wu-Peng Huang
Where did you get your imagery and visual language from? And how has it evolved over the years?
This question seems unclear to me because I don't remember obtaining a visual language from a certain place; I am also a person who needs classification with accurate, professional standards. And somewhere allows us to have an existing standard answer in contemporary art that sounds disagreeable as I could not find that place except school. By the way, if I hadn't been considered a person who does contemporary art, then this kind of answer may not be able to provide an effect. Let me throw an assumption on this question: if the question has been authorized to allow me to translate it into a different version: "How do I organize my visual language?" will be the version for good. To answer this question, I start with three parts as the basis of how to view my paintings: Main character - Supporting character - Background. As we can see from what paintings have been disclosed on the page, the main characters usually have a common feature as the human body; I referenced biological structures from dissection illustrations that were made dozens of years ago. At first, the reason didn't I want to convey some feelings of terror or a fear of a disintegrating body; it was just a simple simulation as following the route that old masters who were walked on the same path, I thought it should be a way to learn something, even obtain differently, and bring a noticeable result for my art as well. For the point of terror, I wish to make an additional statement that it is not a contradiction with the previous theory of suffering because this feeling of terror narrated is instinctive, and how we realize where the suffering comes from is rational.
Speaking of supporting characters in my paintings, they usually play their role to provide a decorative effect in the whole picture; their purpose is to assist the main character in bringing a focus and extending the core contents of the painting. Also, the emphasis of this narrative applies to the decorations attached to my paintings, though they may have different positions and forms compared with a character, and still serve the same purpose. The only point providing a different understanding is one kind of decoration that is positioned on the border of a painting; it constructs stability and restricts our vision into a specific area; we will, therefore, be expected to watch elsewhere where there is more space and real content. Lastly, the part of the background. The background process may be simple based on techniques. However, its uses contain unique functions according to the different needs of design and art. Design requires it as an area to be applied, which will play a role in a piece of work as a pure area occupies a narrow appearance. Art demands itself to provide content; the background remains in a lesser position of focus but also functions as a balance to distinguish core contents and unimportant parts. Now, I am trying to bring less background and maintain the same function; if design and art have a conflict in my painting, I want to make sure that there is still a balance I can find.
I feel that finding an improvement is not a matter of how skilled we are on a piece of canvas; it is a matter of concept and needs. If I have to seek improvements through various channels, doing it on my own seems reasonable because a possible result may influence my next move. Based on such an idea, perhaps something beyond art itself is possible to be involved in a kind of business model; this is also how to express value with methods.
What do you hope the public will take away from your work?
To take something away from my artwork means there is already something I placed in, and people can simply take it and run. First, I am not sure that there is something I had placed in a single piece of art. Second, we will most likely not learn much without doing it systematically. If I assume this something means a message, I don't think we could actually find an obvious, direct message in my art, but still, a relevant topic with it. I do have a preference for putting a piece of literature in a certain corner of my art, and we are able to call this behavior a tradition that came from China. This fact ranged a term called Literati, was a specific social status in old Chinese society, as we understand it as alternative bureaucrat resource for imperial administration, who had participated in imperial selection and succeeded to pass the test, he will be titled into a rank in the formal imperial list and accorded an official position, before the test, he will merely be called a literati as a common recognition. In their normal life, they studied various skills, sometimes, including art. Their paintings had been called Literati Painting as an important label in traditional Chinese art history, some people see it valuable as it provided some stories different from official narratives. One of the ways they provide such things was to write a piece of literature on an area of scroll, and we will be able to see how the content relates to the painting or something related to the person. With time passed, this way became a significant feature in art expression and further shaped into a kind of cultural tradition.
I can almost see what question will be based on such an answer: Do I think of myself as a successor of Chinese tradition? This question ranged two suspect points. One, we need proof to advocate for what contents my literature contains was related to what has been narrated previously. Two, how this question has been asked exists a definition issue in its inner logic. We often say China in our spoken language, however, when we answer an accurate question, it will require more definition with a standard, this China is precisely questionable in the sentence. For example, the Ming dynasty has beenusually referred to as a dynasty of China by people as how it has been called in our spoken language, in fact, its empire was formally called Ming by itself. Therefore, we can say to a certain degree that this dynasty in Chinese actually means empire, After we recognize this, an awkward situation will reveal itself when we reference history, because some empires in Chinese history were rivals against each other as the Ming dynasty was fighting with the Yuan dynasty. If we simply use China in spoken language as a geographical term or cultural concept, obviously not suitable with our actual life experience, I feel the emphasis of this part should be how we realize an issue. If there are options for our audience to take, the awareness of problematic could be one of them.
Di-667, Ink and Acrylic on Hemp Paper, 162x157 cm, 2023 © Wu-Peng Huang
What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future in terms of new projects? Do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations you are looking forward to?
I have maintained my regular schedule almost every day since years ago, and my periodic break time is usually Saturday or a short period of time between each round of my preparation of materials. At the same time, exhibitions are welcome to do if they are not a contradiction to my schedule. When we are talking about this topic, my participation in a few art shows have been processed into gradual development, for example, in August, Bridges of Multiculturalism, the international festival of visual arts, Czestochowskie museum, Poland. In November, Mission tour exhibitions, Laura Notari Art & Design gallery, the Netherlands and Heart of Italy, the 2nd Biennale della Creativita, Ferrara Expo, Italy. As many are possible to be involved in my art career, to see it further, an option that could be looked forward to can be said as attractive as a kind of unique collaboration or experience which allows me to obtain a vision, thereby visualizing a successful model, I see it as prospective as enlightened.
Finally, share something you would like the world to know about you.
I was born in Taichung, Taiwan. Probably when I was 2 years old, my parents took me to Taipei, I lived in the city until now. My student life wasn't very impressive, after I completed my junior high school, a vocational school accepted me for my next stage, it was where I learned what kind of basic principles of how we do a process in the first place. Currently, I do what I am doing as art as a container, there is always a certain path that has to be walked as a purpose we usually practice. If there are too many to remember, simply remembering one thing according to our impression may be a choice to make, because we can still bring something new on our own. Wu-Peng Huang, Peng Peng, I recommend this impression to our audience.
Artist’s Talk
Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.
