HONG KONG.- Galerie Perrotin presents “AND NE FORHTEDON NÁ”, the first solo show of the young Chinese artist HUANG Yuxing with the gallery. Showcasing about 12 pieces, the exhibition gives an in-depth view of the artist’s recent works.

The sentence“And ne forhtedon ná” comes from the epitaph of the 20th-century Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. Originating in the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon, it has much obsessed Huang in his recent creative work. Throughout his lifetime, Borges had never ceased to stand up for his dreams. In literature, he strived to free himself from reality by transcending space and time. Politically, he defied the discourse-dominating power s in the meanest language. And even when plagued by illness, he refused to submit to life’s hurdles. “And ne forhtedon ná” is not only the writer’s ultimate answer to his own dreams; it is also the creative and meditative source for Huang as an expressionist painter. A subtle connection between the artist and the literary giant has made possible a spiritual communion between the two, unjustifiable as it might appear.

In the exhibited work “New Order Hurtling Down the Proletariat”, we see again fragmented human forms. The dynamic colours and the skulls inside crystals are reminiscent of the props used on the Day of the Dead in South America. They symbolize the penniless proletariat, or countries calling themselves “proletariat unions”. The fancy space made up of colourful geometric pieces is relentlessly stormed by large gemstones/meteorites and all sorts of signs of new life, which break into the world of the proletariat. Confusion, avarice…in the fierce attack by the new world, the proletariat are not only fallen and defeated, they also get endless pleasure. For while the two sides clash, lusts or feelings might burst out in a split second…“And ne forhtedon ná.” – this is Huang’s footnote to the moment.

Starting from this series, Huang began to sketch the world afresh from a new perspective, following his own interpretation. All along he has tried to open up a path to the core of life, exploring how “man” in his manifestations of life interacts with a subjectivized “world”. In “Trees of Maturity”, a thriving grove is “alienated” into upside-down organisms with bones and structures developed from the “heads”. The dynamic, overlapping colours echo an attitude to “growth, maturity and death”, one of endless passion and hidden mockery derived from a strong-and-weak belief in the “essence of life”. "And ne forhtedon ná”, Huang’s “grove” never stops getting over the limitations, constraints and oppression imposed from outside. The “heads”, whether joyous, inhibited or disappointed, enjoy the pleasure of coming ever closer to grandeur, till they meet “death” in maturity.

Fragmented human and material elements are invested with the meaning of “life source” in Huang’s visual language, différancing a “neither…nor…” mode of discourse as expounded by Jacque Derrida. Being “physiological organs”, they will grow and decay as life goes on. Yet as “spiritual subjects”, they will not disappear outright but will be reborn on a different level. In other words, they are neither completely “eternal” nor completely “fallen”. So in the face of life, “fear” is but futile. In “Swaddle”, new-born babies float in a silent space, as if in the river of life. They hide and grow inside crystal capsules. It is life at the beginning, and also the starting and finishing points of a journey.

Similarly, in some smaller works, against a somewhat mellow backdrop of uneven colours, fancy skulls with clear or distorted outlines fill up the whole picture or are partly implanted into amber-like crystals. Under Huang’s colourful treatment, the otherwise frightening or horrible images are toned down to invite a fresh look – again with a reassuring "And ne forhtedon ná”. Each of these life-carrying organs is an objectified keeper of the experiences of the living person, consolidating his existence from birth to death, his feelings as well as resistance to external happenings, perplexity and even “growth” itself.

Here it is increasingly clear that body “organs” are the “relics” of Huang’s personal reflections. In fact, organs as “relics” have long underlain the artist’s paintings, as he once said, “One’s history and its course are manipulated and controlled by so many things external to life,” and substances like “organs” “can stand against such manipulation”. In “Software Factory”, we can see more clearly a world of space and fields made up of “organs” and all sorts of geometric “treasures”. The subjective interplay of space and geometry and Huang’s sense of texture render these treasures an aura of bubble-like transparency and, in the way of tenons and mortises, they make up an environment extending beyond the picture. According to Huang, this is “the distribution centre of spiritual life, a symbolic place for mental workers to waste out their lives”. Here people live on their brains honestly, passing from one generation to the next, which is an epitome of individuals spending their whole lives in society. High above the architecture are strong colours streaming down, as bright as rainbow and as gorgeous as sparkling fire. They combine with the architecture to form a magical poetic space, apparently void yet full of awesome “vigour” and “fervour”. Here decadence, disillusion, nihilism, pessimism…are all dissolved under the "And ne forhtedon ná” postulate.

Huang’s creativity has come a long way. His early works like “Carnivorous Species: Ailuropoda Melanoleuca” and “Dairy” appropriated, adapted or subverted ready-made images to elicit interpretation of chance “episodes” of a virtual world. They were then followed by cool reflections on the interrelated “physiological study” and “life history” in “Life History in Changing” and “Physiologist Portrait”, from which the artist began to give up ready-made images and conceptual painting; the growth of a visual language and style in “Habitat”, “Light” and “River”; the ever separation, isolation and bonding of ovals in a crystalized geometric space in the “Treasure” series…With no consistent semiotics, Huang does not restrict himself to a single, monotonous way of signifying. Yet, underlying his artistic creation is a persistent interest in “the body” and “the world”.

In a sense, Huang’s recent works are a deepening of the “Treasure” series. Not just pictorially, but the imagery is more focused too. Fragmented “man” is put in centrepiece and human forms, as well as the crystal-like “treasures”, are ultimately to be viewed in an "And ne forhtedon ná” mindset. On one hand, Huang is keen to express such a perception of “man” and “wisdom”, which he feels should be universal but is often ignored. On the other hand, he tries to surpass the given meaning structure of “man” by making him highly dynamic in “Treasure”. To him, “man” can survive death of the body and continue his own historicity. Thus “man” (or “the body” for that matter) becomes the only thing to challenge “the world”, and the carrier of wisdom and history. Moreover, as “the world” in Huang’s works refers to the virtual and fantasy abstract, “man” is the only visible thing there. All this points to a visual translation of Merleau-Ponty’s idea of “corporealization of the world” – the world as the externalization of “the body”, or the outcome of its direct contact with “the external”. Alternatively, “the external” is what it appears to “the body”; hence an internalization. In Huang’s mind, "And ne forhtedon ná” has become a necessary task of “man”.

Today our everyday reality, cultural consumption and static perception are being largely disintegrated by the fragmentary and momentary present. It follows that we will soon lose our firm grip on the world, turn skeptical under the current perceptual mode, and not least lose ourselves in the struggle against overflowed ideas. Everything seems to disintegrate at an exponential rate. And yet anything unimaginable may fall on “man” at an unexpected moment, be it tragedy or comedy, acceptable or unacceptable. In art we must, and ought to, begin to take this fact: no “body” in the social receptacle can escape the grim reality. When we are troubled with anxiety, bewilderment, worries etc. – "And ne forhtedon ná”. Huang has provided us with a unique, aesthetic and perfect reference.