Acrylic on canvas

145 x 230 cm. 57 1/8 × 90 1/2 in.

Signed in pinyin and dated on bottom right

LITERATURE
2018, Artco Monthly May Issue, Artco Books, Taipei, p.106
EXHIBITED
14 Apr – 13 May 2018, Kingdom of Gold – Huang Yuxing Solo Exhibition, Whitestone Gallery, Taipei

PROVENANCE
Whitestone Gallery, Taipei
Important Private Collection, Asia

The Discovery of Life Under the Dome
The Humanity Epic of Huang Yuxing

“No man ever steps in the same river twice.”
——Socrates

As one of the nowadays most highlighted young artists in China, Huang Yuxing has made a significant transformation since his graduation from the Department of Mural Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2000. After the expression of representational characters in his early stage, he then shifted his centre of creation from the geometrical conversion of objects to current abstract vocabulary, that achieved a unique discovery based on individual experience thus gave birth to the “time” and “life” concept in his perspective.

Under the Sunlight, Flows Deep Currents

Completed in 2018, A Drift of an Anarchist adopts a vertical composition in the upper part and parallel space arrangement in the lower part to start the creation. The two parts are separated by warm-toned and cold-toned colour blocks which give an intriguing visual effect. The “bushes” in upper part wander between the blue and purple region and sketch the contours of an electrocardiogram with transparent acrylic paint. On the upper left corner, a light source given by the full moon leans out from rows and lines of bushes, rendering surreal mysticism aura with its' gorgeous colour.

The “river” below is made up of geometric crystals with smooth curves, exhibiting a strong sense of structure. It can be certain types of highly-evolved future machines, crowded stars in the dark universe, or jewels given birth by the ever-lasting ages. The artist divides this part from the blue and purple areas of the “bushes” by applying fluorescent green and pink colours that symbolize spring. The science-fiction atmosphere points vaguely at the trace of some idiosyncratic creatures in another time and space. Among the fragmented crystal of colours, four human figures are floating on water. Though aimless they may seem, they are enveloped and sheltered by encircled bubbles. While the flickering kaleidoscope-like image that consists of fluorescent colours resembles colour-enhanced digital picture, who aggressively challenges the system and essence of media.

The Origin of the Long River of Life

Those creatures that are flowing in the “river”, those embryos that are bred inside the oval like a bubble or matrix, reveal their fragility as if they will break at one touch as well as embrace a wide variety of life forms. They breathe freely in the water where they were born. Other fragmented crystals are identical to the blood vessels, bones and cells in the matrix, which revive life experience beyond our vision from a micro perspective. In the environment of the matrix where is full of chaos, human consciousness is being formed slowly —— despite the disordering and complicity of the river, it nourishes life in her silence until human come into the world. In this pandemonium, time flies and far-away bushes are illusory as a mirage, while only the interchanging of the sun and the moon is luminous than ever, lightening up the dawn of life.

The Collision of Individuality and Society

This work was named as A Drift of an Anarchist by its' author Huang Yuxing. “Anarchism” originated from Ancient Greece and was developed by a philosopher called Aeschylus. It emphasizes the subtle strong-weak relationship between the right of an individual and the profit of a community. Regarding this admirable work that is wild yet self-disciplined, it can be treated as an alien epic concerning contemporary life or the reflection towards nowadays' efficiently-operating technologies, society and interpersonal relationships.

“Light”, “river”, “bubble”, “bushes”...... These creative elements have been adopted so repeatedly in Huang Yuxing's artworks since early 2000 that they have become critical media of his self-expression. As an artwork that has a complete collection of these classic elements, A Drift of an Anarchist is considered to be his prominent masterpiece and attended his first solo exhibition in Whitestone Gallery in Taipei in the same year of its' completion.

Price estimate:
HKD 2,800,000 – 3,800,000
USD 359,000 – 487,200

Auction Result:
HKD: 2,200,000