My work will be an integration of science and technology, reflecting the various adaptations and interactions of living beings in a complex, evolving environment. I will incorporate aspects of my work with research and observations in various Queens neighborhoods to reflect a delicate, intricate ecology of interaction transpiring there every day.
The installation will transpose or translate into artwork various storefronts in neighborhoods in Queens, as a recombination of elements that can be found in their dollar stores. These scavenged and purchased elements will be integrated with tools and techniques already present in my work—LED’s, computer fans, microcontrollers and inflatables—to create hybrid works of art that reflect my interaction with the neighborhoods. The installation will not only utilize the raw materials found in dollar stores, but the inspiring improvisations found there. Improvised architecture and design can be found everywhere in these neighborhoods, for display, storage, and other complex, sometimes arcane uses. I will utilize aspects of these ad hoc structures to inform the physical space and interactions between my sculptures. In so doing, the project seeks to go beyond superficial symbolic reflections of the neighborhoods, to explore deeper structural patterns. The resulting exhibit will therefore feature electronic, kinetic sculptures that make noise, generate patterns of light and movement, and generally interact with one another in an animal-like ecology. Creatures of various sizes made from household materials will hover above the space, while elements of their makeup—computer cooling fans, LED lights, etc—will pulsate, with “life”, as if the creatures are being contstructed, or perhaps are reconstructing themselves into something new: a living, breathing, evolving and cooperating, self-sufficient society. As the world becomes an increasingly complex and small place, connected geographically and electronically, across linguistic, cultural and physical boundaries, it becomes more and more important to synthesize an ecological understanding of the way humans interact in a cooperative environment. Viewers will ideally walk away from the exhibit with a notion of themselves in an incomprehensible but beautiful and ultimately generous understanding of social structures.
About the Artist
Shih Chieh Huang creates installations that merge common, store-bought artificial materials and dissected electronics with air and water to create interactive organic living environments and sculptures. Huang has exhibited his sculptures and installations at the Experimenta Biennial of Media Art Melbourne, Busan Biennial, Aichi Triennial, 52nd Venice Biennial Taiwan Pavilion, Biennial Zero1 San Jose, Biennial Cuvée in Austria, the ARC Biennial Australia, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and MOCA Shanghai. His solo exhibitions have been held at Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History, RISD Museum of Art, Beall Center for Art and Technology and MOCA Taipei. Huang’s awards include an Artist Research Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution, a Creative Capital Grant, a Rockefeller Foundation New Media Arts Fellowship, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Sculpture Award, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships and residencies at Art Omi, Skowhegan and The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation.
