The Yellow Balloon by HUANG Wen-Hao
Date: March 1-April 8, 2011
Monday through Friday 10am-7pm
Venue: 1st F, Taishin Tower (No. 118, Sec 4, Ren-ai Rd. , Taipei, Taiwan)
As the yellow balloons “fly” into the Taishin Building, a flow of dreams also seems to begin invading our daily space.
The Yellow Balloon is an exhibition featuring new artworks by the artist, HUANG Wen-Hao, an important promoter of the New Media Art in Taiwan.
HUANG Wen-Hao was a founding member of the IT PARK Art Space, which was the first alternative art space and an important base for the development of installation art in Taiwan in the early 1990s. In 1995, HUANG founded his own studio, the “Local Experiment,” with an intent to promote network technology in a narrowband network environment, and has since become a pioneer of Taiwanese New Media Art.
The Yellow Balloon was one of HUANG’s installation works from his solo exhibition, MUTE, at IT PARK in 2009, and this was also the first solo exhibition HUANG had following his previous solo exhibition at IT PARK thirteen years ago. The two severe illnesses, which HUANG suffered during this time, have strengthened his determination in his art practice. While recuperating, he re-identified the way he used to recognize the world via the visual information he received from websites. The solo exhibition, MUTE, was an introspection on his life via his perception of networks. In comparison to his other works which were dependent on a large number of low-pixel image assemblages, The Yellow Balloon was made with real objects, and that contrarily creates a sense of dream beyond the reality. The yellow balloons that ‘fly’ laterally violate the restrictions of the gravity, and imperceptibly present a condensed eternal moment. To HUANG, it is as a form of freedom, a liberated vitality, and a self-expectation from an artist after going through different significant transitions in his life.
For this exhibition, HUANG uses the same means to display the yellow balloons in the Taishin Building. As the yellow balloons ‘fly’ into the Taishin Building, they would land between the elevators that the Taishin employees use everyday. The intrusion of these yellow balloons will not only allow the static space to become vibrant but will also transform the time, waiting for the coming of elevators, into enjoyable moments. We hope that the “liberal and vital” spirit inherent to the project “The Yellow Balloon” will liberate the elevator-users from their quotidian confinements and become able to breathe a fresh air of art and creative imagination. .
HUANG Wen-Hao
Born in Changhua, Taiwan in 1959, HUANG Wen-Hao graduated from Chinese Culture University, Department of Botany. His art career began in 1983 and since then he has been awarded numerous local contemporary art exhibitions, and also had many solo exhibitions. He undertook “Digital Art Festival Taipei” in 2006, established Digital Art Foundation in 2008, and has taken on the executive position at the Digital Art Center since 2009.
