Serena Huang @ Mandy Zhang Art
One thing I truly appreciate about artists is how they find ways to turn their fixations into something that can be appreciated by everyone. Even things that aren’t easily accessible to a wide or foreign audience. Serena Huang has a deep interest in Taoist philosophy, traditional Chinese medical theory and acupuncture. Speaking with her it’s evident that she’s researched these topics deeply. They provided the direct inspiration for the imagery, arrangement and names of the works in her show that “explores the relationship and transformation of energy between our body and the natural world”.
Hung in two rooms and a hallway of a Marylebone flat, a series of seemingly abstract works are connected through visual cues and colour matched electrical cables that wind their way behind the works and around the walls. There’s a helpful A3 handout that explains the basic concept and structure, but I’m incredibly thankful that the artist was present to give me a guided tour. Understanding how each work derived from her research definitely enhanced my appreciation, even though I struggled to grasp even half of the concepts she was explaining. Once you know what to look for, though, some of the meaning in the imagery becomes more easily revealed.
I learned that the carpeted ‘piles of moss’ are intended to be forests of trees as seen from the heavens. What I initially thought was a fabric collage of two mountains were actually clasping hands. And yes, those dots on the wall are indeed supposed to be nipples, because the entire main gallery is a walk-through diagram of the body’s pressure points. I might have eventually picked up some of that on my own, but the majority of the context is likely to be lost on Westerners. As I often do with shows that are alien to my knowledge or experience, I walked away wondering how deeply that matters.
Despite my ignorance I found the work to be visually interesting. There are layers of texture and transparency, and some pretty lush fabric samples that I desperately wanted to reach out and stroke. Some works are backlit. One has tassels blown by a hidden fan. There are tons of small details and in various ways each work calls out to me from across the room in which they are thematically and sometimes physically linked, like squares in a community quilt. Each piece contributes to a much larger narrative but many would still draw my attention if they were presented in isolation.
Except here they are all working together, and I found it refreshing to experience an immersive, interconnected installation that, with rare exception, uses just the artworks. There’s a lot of “immersive” art presented in galleries, and a lot of it tends to involve gratuitous window dressing that distracts you from the art itself. Here that’s not the case. And although there are audiences that might walk away with a deeper intellectual appreciation than I did, it will be evident to anyone visiting that there’s a bigger narrative to be revealed to those who wish to uncover the stories. Or you can do what I did, and walk away inspired by the visual and technical artistry.
Plan your visit
‘I Saw A Sun And A Moon As I Entered Between The 7th And 8th Rib’ runs until 15 October.
The show is by appointment only. E-mail info@mandyzhang.art to book.
Visit mandyzhang.art and follow @mandyzhangart on Instagram for more info about the venue.
Visit serena-huang.com and follow @serena_______h on Instagram for more info about the artist.
PLUS…
Check the What’s On page so you don’t miss any other great shows closing soon.
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