Mandy Zhang Art is thrilled to present "I Saw A Sun And A Moon As I Entered Between The 7th And 8th Rib", a solo exhibition showcasing Serena Huang's latest body of work that explores the relationship and transformation of energy between our body and the natural world, where tangible and abstract forms merge into a visual spectacle.
Serena Huang’s interest dwells in speculative visual storytelling through creating installations, moving image, and performance. Huang’s work highlights the glitches in history, the backstage of reality, the anecdotes behind the curtain, through revisiting the meaningful coincidence and merges the line between fiction and truth. She often employs theatricality as a bridge between fragmented materials and knowledge.
Spanning two gallery rooms, the exhibition weaves a visual narrative that unfolds within the immersive spaces, inspired by Huang’s recent research in Taoist philosophy, Traditional Chinese Medical theory, and nature science. Serving as an activation point, the painting of a lightning strike ignites a flow of energy that extends to the other room, illuminating the "Conception Vessel" positioned at the chest—the very core of our being. On the wall opposite, the hands held together, creating an open space with the arms.
Huang is fascinated by the unseen forces that manifest themselves in coincidences, such as the theatricality in synchronicity, the idea of Chi, an energy flow within our bodies, and even the polysemy of the word "plasma." These unseen forces act as joints, while what we can visibly perceive appears as fragments, seemingly irrelevant. At the heart of this exhibition, the visualisation of transformative energy flowing from nature to the human body is activated. Through a tactful play with ancient analogies in the naming of pressure points and their relationship with the cosmic alignment, Huang invites us to speculate on how our body can be portrayed as natural and architectural scenes that are joined together by the flow of Chi, much like the topography of a city.
The huge body of fabric collage works are all made from local recycled fabric samples. The idea of sampling and sewing resonates with how the artist makes sense of the world. Like the threads she sews, she connects seemingly unrelated fragments of information, and that is key to Huang’s practice in which she tries to make sense of what truth means to her. As the artist herself aptly puts it, "Each textile is in itself a creation, and together they become something else, determined by what and how it's placed amongst others."
The exhibition will be accompanied by “I thought of going for a walk”, a scheduled spoken word performance with a tea ceremony by the artist.