Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

Huang, Ming-Zheng performs tricks with boomerangs, ropes and newspapers or balances on pipes, does martial arts and imitates the sounds of various animals and machinery. He also has been documented doing handstands all over Taiwan in picturesque settings, sometimes struggling on motorcycle seats, basketball hoops, or even on top of trucks. Each of these photographs tells a story or of a personal experience. Although his show entitled “Transparent Country” is only 70 minutes long, he manages to interact with many people, events and things in the many places where he performs. His live tricks are not stage illusions or created with special equipment, and his lively interactions caught on film are not altered through any post production technology. “Transparent Country”  is not a theatrical performance; it is rather like action art in spirit, or allegorical circus. In his stage performances he wears costumes and pretends to be politicians, peddlers or vagrants in order to critique various situations, and his circus act presents his view of life in Taiwan. As a performance artist, Huang Ming-Zheng has not only left the theater, but also strode into people's lives, walking on his hands with hard-to-come-by determination.Committee member: Fu, Yu-Hui

Through an upside down journey, Transparent Country reflects the diversity of Taiwan society.Technically his work aspires to blend the conceptual essence of a variety of   contemporary circus forms.  With super human perseverance HUANG Ming-Chengs', art aims to activate a self awareness within Taiwan society, enabling individuals to connect to the diversity of its land and people.By combining visual art and time-based performance, Transparent Country becomes a total work of art, crossing disciplines, audience and cultural boundaries.Through the universally understood language of acrobatics HUANG, makes his messages accessible and available to a wide variety of audiences and opens the possibility of this project to extend world wide. Committee members:Yuji Akimoto / Stephan Berg / Chao,Yu-Ling / Chen, Hung-Yi / Hsu,Shu-Ya / Keng,Yi-Wei / Lin, Ping / Paul King / Leisa Shelton.

Artwork Introduction

Huang, Ming-Zheng's “Transparent Country” was performed on November 11, 2010 at Pingdong High School, and December 9, 2010 at Taipei’s Eslite Hsinyi Performance Space.

Huang is the first in Taiwan to combine acrobatics and circus skills with fine art photography and present it as performance art in a visual arts setting rather than as traditional Peking Opera. His work “Transparent Country” is unique to Taiwan’s theatre and art worlds as it combines several genres such as the circus, theatre, art skills and travelogue with site research and the social interaction of local audiences. 

When Huang travelled on his 6-month, 20,000 km trip around Taiwan to gain an understanding of Taiwanese culture and society, he photographed himself doing headstands in various locations. These images, which capture the flavor of Taiwan, are the basis for “Transparent Country.” Inspired by the in-depth understanding of Taiwan’s audiences, he also created sculptures.

During the trip, he performed a 70-minute work on the street, after he had researched the location and the local people. After the performance, he would do a headstand at a street corner or on a motorbike and capture the moment in a photograph.

Additionally he performed his acrobatic routine to introduce Taiwan’s circus arts to people throughout the island and he performed at schools, orphanages and senior homes.

Huang’s work bridges the fine line between the circus and the visual arts. For him, the audience is just as important as his performance. Eventually, he desires to use acrobatics as a way to help serve disadvantaged groups. His group Theatre du Moment was established to develop Taiwan’s own characteristic circus skills, to create an environment for the circus, and to interact with international circus arts and to serve circus skills.

“Transparent Country” is ultimately an artwork about Taiwan: its roots, its culture and its people.

About the Artist

Huang, Ming-Zheng, who is also known as Mr Upsidedown, studied acrobatics as a small child and at the age of 13, won the China Wu Chiao World Acrobatics Competition Bronze Medal, which was the first international medal for Taiwan in acrobatics.

As a dance major, Huang started his own dance company Theatre du Moment. In 2010, he undertook a 6-month, 20,000 km trip around Taiwan in which he gave 600 performances to local audiences, helping him to form his circus art creation of “Transparent Country.”

Besides performing, Huang travels and lectures widely and is writing a book about his experiences.