Exhibitions » Exhibition Archive » 2011 » Art in The Auditorium » Huang Xiaopeng
Huang Xiaopeng
29 January - 6 March 2011 in the Adam Gallery
Much of Chinese artist Huang Xiaopeng’s work focuses on language, dealing with issues of (mis)translation and the relationship between language and technology. In this work the artist sets up a simple dialogue between two children engaged in the act of blowing up balloons. The outcome is obvious from the outset—ultimately the balloons, stretched beyond capacity, will explode in the faces of the two protagonists—causing the audience to watch with mounting apprehension.
It’s Gonna Pop You Idiot! zeroes in on a very commonplace situation, an everyday exchange with an element of slapstick comedy. The ‘technology’ here is basic, and spoken language is rendered redundant; instead we become acutely aware of the boys’ unconscious body language, which represents another field of communication. The inevitability of the outcome invokes a sense of suspense shared by participants and viewers; without common language there is a shared, spontaneous and instinctive response.
Huang is a video and installation artist. Currently he lives and works in Guangzhou. He regularly creates installations involving text in public space, and makes work using common online translation tools such as Google Translate, a service provided by a corporation that has engaged in multiple political disputes with the Chinese Government. It’s Gonna Pop You Idiot!, Para/Site Gallery’s selection for the international Art in the Auditorium programme, engages with ongoing themes in his practice, reduced to a spare and slightly farcical equation. Huang studied at Slade School of Fine Art in London, where he gained a Master Degree in Fine Art. In 2003 he returned to China to take up the post of Professor of Fine Art at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art, China.