• Duration: 2012/10/06-10/31
• Opening: 2012/10/06 3:00pm
• Exhibited artist: Huang Yi-Sheng

The sky is clear, while the skyline slides through the end of the azure ocean – all the way toward the edge of the world. The white clouds slowly float around the sky, gazing upon the waves hitting on the shallow beach creating a thin layer of white foam. It is a peaceful and pleasant moment. Even the sparrows, often seen in the city, seem to be quieted down for a while from the noisy chirping and jumping. Relaxed and undisturbed, they stop here to enjoy such a breathtakingly beautiful moment. Some of them land on the colorful balloons soaring high in the air; some of them roam around the soft sand beach; while some of them even perch on the unfixed ropes. The upcoming change or risk seems barely bother the sparrows. Putting away the instinct to be alert, they are lost in the comfort provided by the soothing surroundings which they have never experienced before. “Here, they almost forget that they can fly,” as described by the artist Huang Yi-Sheng, the creator of such a wonderful world.

A sparrow might be small, but it becomes the recurring motif of the series works demonstrated in Huang Yi-Sheng’s recent solo exhibition “When the Door Opens". In order to paint the sparrows, Huang Yi-Sheng pays extraordinary attention to these small creatures in his daily life. “While there are grains scattered around the empty space in the park, no bird will come to eat them except for sparrows and pigeons; but if there is any human being approaching the space, sparrows will be the first to fly away,” says the artist. In Huang’s eyes, sparrows cannot stay too close to humans but they depend on humans to survive. Sparrows’ special behavior is thus regarded as a declaration that “I need you but I do not trust you,” as described by the artist. Such an independent relationship is full of subtlety, ambiguity, and contradiction. To some degree, it happens to make a response to the artist’s psychological perception of the society and interpersonal relationship – being close but yet staying alienated, suggesting how Huang expects intimacy while maintaining certain distance.

Written by Sun Xiao-Tong