Today we’d like to introduce you to Yasi Huang.
Hi Yasi, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I always feel that art is a riddle of hidden stories, and art education is a journey of watching life in all its forms. I grew up as a voracious observer, desiring to see more. In high school, I left my hometown which was a small southern town, and went to Beijing to study painting. At there, I spent all my days standing on the floor covered in paint and pencil dust that can’t be wiped off, wearing clothes that were always smeared with paint, discussing common dreams with people who grew up with marks of all corners of the world, and the hardships of studying for more than eight hours a day were never as bad as not being able to find a good angle for a scene. Such adventures are addictive. Over the next few years, I studied at in Macau, California and New York City, not looking for grades but for experience. The exhilaration of new knowledge and experiences overshadowed fatigue and turned me into a chaotic superhero. In dealing with different cultures and people, my heart became wider and my eyesight became more observant. It was during this time that I found myself drawn to work with a strong narrative and chose illustration as my major.
But no Peter Pan in this world can fly forever, and no Neverland can be stranded forever. After knowing the cancer diagnosis of my sister, I took a New Year’s Eve flight back home in 2018, leaving behind is my passionate studies and my childish indolence. I kept arranging work for myself to try to provide my family with some meager salary. The money was a pittance against the sky-high cost of medication, but the self-abusive work seemed to wash away some of the guilt and anxiety. As a child, I thought growing up was becoming tall and straight, but growing up is bending one’s back. Despite my parents and I emptying ourselves of everything, my sister eventually left us. No one told me that apart from grief, there was also shame, shame that I was looking out at the world, shame that I had not been able to bear my sister’s suffering, and I could not keep their best, most obedient daughter for my parents. It was a long, long walk to send her off, but I don’t remember the scenery on either side, only the slabs of grey stone beneath my feet and the tears that kept dripping onto the ground. There is always a lot of chaos in this memory, but I always remember walking out of the house that day and feeling the sky suddenly clear and the warm April sun on me. It is said that after experiencing death, a person becomes one of two kinds of people: those who are not yet dead and those who have survived. At that time I had a sudden stirring to be the one who survived.
I left the city with my sister’s memories and moved to Shanghai. I first became an art space manager, during this period I came to know different artists and their state of being. I began to think in a deeper creative direction. I started to deliberately extend the length of my single works and to challenge myself with larger works. My curiosity about religion and metaphysics intensified, and I quoted various symbols and signs to illustrate what I had seen and heard in my life. By coincidence, I became an art teacher. I made many, many mistakes in my own educational planning, but education mercifully forgave and accepted me. In dealing with teenagers of my sister’s age, I suddenly felt redeemed, as if my bulging guilt had been twisted into a force, a sense of responsibility. I wanted to stay in school for a long time.
Shanghai went into a severe lockdown in 2022. That dramatic moment broke my 9 to 5 routine. It was during this time that I began to reflect on my life. My adventure is not yet over, I told myself. I need to create, and art is where I hide my emotions and sentiments. I have a great deal of love to give.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My upbringing was marked by a great deal of independence but a lack of emotional ties. I now only feel safe storing my emotional side when I create art. I truly take pleasure in portraying and expressing extremely delicate and personal feelings. I hope they are secret sometimes and strong other times.
My medium is painting, which I utilize a lot when applying color.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laozilaozi/
Image Credits
Yasi Huang
