Introduction of the artist:

HUANG Ran (China)

Born 1982 in Xichang, Sichuan, China. Lives and works in Beijing. 
Selected solo exhibitions: 2012 Disruptive Desires, Tranquility, and the Loss of Lucidity, Long March Space, Beijing, China; 2010 Blithe Tragedy, Space Station, Beijing; 2009 Ran Huang, Nika Oblak & Primoz Novak, VIVID, Birmingham, UK;
Selected group exhibitions: 2012 Echigo-Tsumari Triennial; 2012, Echigo-Tsumari, Japan; 2012 Disruptive Desires, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York; 2012 Group Show, Eigen+Art, Berlin; 2012 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, Shenzen, China; 2011 20 Years: Moving Image in China 1988-2011, MinSheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China; 2011 13th Videonale, Kunst Museum, Bonn, Germany; 2009 7th Mercosur Biennial, Brazil.

Huang Ran’s most recent work, Unlimited Chance Acquired, is again ambiguous, to be read as a romantic tragedy, or in reality, an almost cruel celebration of violence. The bubbles themselves are originally colourless, only turning colourful under the lights. They look free of worry, unstressed, and transient, living in the gap between the spiritual worlds of blitheness and pathos. The metal grids are a sign of security, but at the same time a sign of warning. They construct a special space for chance coincidence, where “love feeds on the intrinsic feeling of awe coming from the chance itself.” The bubbles’ successful escape is neither dependent on any order, nor on the accumulation of the bubbles' efforts. They seek their own doom at, or beyond, the grid, lightly and brightly, without divulging their intellectual indolence or incompetence. In this work, the artist states, “desire and the quality of aesthetics are ironically protected by the inherent insecurity that is rejected by the aesthetical system itself. By substituting a dubious sense of romanticism and expressionism, the conflict between industrialised materials provides us with a kind of experience (not comprehension), challenging the incompatibility of our ethical aesthetics and even the boundary of our language.”

Introduction of works:

Collective Faith in the Blind Pain, silk screen prints, 2012

Infinite Demand on Opportunity, installation, 420×420×210cm, 2012

Pleasing Tragedy, image capture, 2012

Behind an electronic metal grid, is a machine constantly making bubbles, most of the which burst and sparkle when colliding with one of the electronic bars, disappearing into the air, whilst only a few lucky ones pass through the grids to carry on floating higher up the other side.

Huang Ran’s most recent work, Unlimited Chance Acquired, is again ambiguous, to be read as a romantic tragedy, or in reality, an almost cruel celebration of violence. The bubbles themselves are originally colourless, only becoming colourful under the lights. They look worry free and unstressed, transient, living in the gap between the spiritual worlds of blitheness and pathos. The metal grids act as a sign of security but at the same time, a sign of warning. They construct a special space for the coincidence of chance, where “love feeds on the intrinsic feeling of awe coming from the chance itself.” The successful escape of bubbles is neither dependent on the order, or the accumulation of their efforts. They seek their own doom at, or beyond, the grids, lightly and brightly, without divulging their intellectual indolence and incompetence. In this work, as the artist stated, “desire and the quality of aesthetics are ironically protected by the inherent insecurity that is rejected by the aesthetical system itself. By substituting a dubious sense of romanticism and expressionism, the conflict between industrialised materials provides us with a kind of experience (not comprehension), challenging the incompatibility of our ethical aesthetics and even the boundary of our language.”

The reflections on life and fate are concealed in a festival-like atmosphere. Death, such a heavy and bitter topic, is carefully encased up in those entertaining bubbles. As long as they are produced, they have no choice but to float through the air non-stop. Their journeys terminate at either side of the grids and yet death is the ultimate destination. In comparison with eternity, the brief lifespan of the bubbles and that of our human bodies of some decades, are apparently given in exchange for experiencing some short-lived pleasure. They all seem to be free, but can only fix their eyes to the visible, encouraged and companied by each other, and many more to come, to reshape their hopeless feeling of fear into an adoration of their fatality.