Capsule Shanghai is delighted to present I’ve been to Italy by Taiwanese artist Huang Hai-Hsin (b.1984 in Taiwan where she lives and works). This is Huang’s first solo exhibition in Italy on the occasion of Artissima 2023. Featuring a brand-new body of works on paper specifically conceived for the Disegni section and inspired by the artist’s recent journey through Italy, this series of drawings pays homage to Italy’s architectural, artistic, and human landscapes.
In the summer of 2023, Huang Hai-Hsin embarked on a contemporary Grand Tourthat took her to Milan, Venice, Padua, Florence, Rome, and Turin, among other locations. The result is a visual diary featuring drawings of various sizes which employ a multiplicity of techniques, some of which are realized en plein air. The images reveal the peculiarities of cities and their inhabitants. Observed by Huang’s well-trained eye, then transferred onto the paper in vibrant pen or pencil, these scenes come to life through a mixture of focused contemplation and delightful spontaneity. Huang requires significant patience and time to find the situations that trigger her imagination, but her sincere curiosity about, and openness to, the incessant flow of life allow her to be constantly surprised, inspired, and challenged, and, thus, to grasp the subtle textures of a city or a figure most would scarcely notice.
Huang’s scenes are vital, endowed with a highly performative, almost cinematic nature, as though they were stills from a single film – independent, yet interconnected – each continuing beyond the edge of the paper, linking the drawings in a larger unbroken narrative. They are bound by a plot in which nothing remains static, fact and fiction blur and overlap, prompting the real to disclose its surreal essence.
This is particularly true of Huang’s most ambitious work on site: a 3.5 meter long diary displayed in the form of a leporello book that chronologically records the different Italian cities the artist visited during her trip. Acting as a visual stream of consciousness in which Huang herself intermittently appears, this diary juxtaposes extravagant ladies dressed to impress, clumsy tourists with their selfie-sticks aloft posing in front of landmarks, as well as slow gondolas and roaring automobiles, or focus upon the materiality of historical simulacra – e.g. mass-produced statues of David. Also on show are “athletic” tourists posing in front of architectural wonders. These figures are often set against the backdrop of almost anthropomorphized fragments of buildings whose monumental scale is often domesticated by a dash of cuteness. The buildings match the mood of the people who inhabit them, tragicomic subjects caught in a continuous role play aimed at examining their (im)probable status as contemporary icons. They are all part of a rhythmic visual phantasmagoria conveyed through different tactile effects.
The other body of drawings on view is arranged along the walls and it discloses various themes. Some works portray places, both renowned and anonymous, which are activated by the artist’s gaze, or by people’s actions. They include historical cafes, churches, museums, and iconic urban corners. Others feature objects selected from among the wide variety of visual and conceptual inputs accumulated during Huang’s tour, from cultural relics and souvenir statues to religious attire and replicas of masterpieces. Among the most eye-catching works are those that depict a colorful panoply of humanity, outsiders recruited as unwitting protagonists, or as compositional lodestars. Impossible not to notice is the overwhelming energy of a group of ladies wearing heavy makeup, or that of muscled, statuesque Venetian gondoliers, but also there is a low key calmness in depictions of elderly people sitting quietly amidst the chaos of the world.
Huang Hai-Hsin has the striking capacity to grasp the peculiar expressiveness of every individual in her works, turning a generic “type” into a unique character and vice versa without fully revealing the whole story of what we are seeing. The fundamental geometries she uses to portray an individual are sufficient to evoke the contours of a personality, or the characteristics of a social group without ultimately resolving, and, therefore, ossifying the mysteries of the human psyche. Perhaps it is no accident that one of the artists Huang admires most is Giotto, the first of the Old Masters to succeed in representing the human figure through the expressiveness of gestures, feelings, and moods. In Huang’s work, figures have a precise physical characterization that corresponds to a distinct emotional condition.
Huang’s gaze is another crucial component in her work; it plays multiple roles. Encapsulating the pivotal moment of selection of a certain subject, for example, or materializing the ongoing creative process and the final fruition of an artwork. The personal gaze of the artist blends with the external gaze of the viewer. Devoid of prejudgment or stereotyping about her subjects, Huang is both entertainer and entertained, laboring behind the scenes and on stage. No matter which role she plays, her practice becomes a celebration of life in all its unexpected twists and turns, exaggerations, and paradoxes. She overturns social paradigms and canons of “good” behavior and respectability, all while establishing her own personal standards.
The great strength of Huang Hai-Hsin’s work lies in her unresolved presence: she doesn’t judge her characters for flaws, their larger-than-life aspirations, or their irrational confidence (or awkwardness). She is capable of revealing their embarrassing poses and their unconscious desires to be whatever they want to be. She empathizes, recognizing that they constitute the untameable spirit part of the temporary collection of things that populate our world.
Text by Manuela Lietti
