Meet Peishan Huang | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Peishan Huang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Peishan, let’s start by talking about what inspires you?
My inspiration comes from everyday life, including all that I have experienced and the places I have lived. I am very observant and have a strong memory for scenes and images, which are things that help me get and remember inspiration. Also, a large-capacity phone and memos in the phone are helpful because I always shoot and write down a lot of daily fragments on my phone. The photos and notes of daily life may seem very fragmented, but I always find interesting clues and ideas in them when I review them, and then practice them. This is how I get most of my inspiration for my work.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My practice involves a variety of mediums including photography, moving images, sculpture, and installation. I specialize in using mixed mediums to speak about content. My aesthetic is expressed through the colors, textures, and poetic emotions of the materials and the narrative given to my works through them. I’m concerned with the issues faced by the minority groups in which I live and have also been discussing the relationship between urban systems and nature in my work over the past two years. My recent work focuses on the diverse and poetic relationships between space and objects and people, and I add fictional writing to my new series of work and go on to use a surreal approach to my practice.

I like most of my own work, but it’s hard for me to feel satisfied with them. They are always in an unfinished state in my mind. When I create new work I just pause from my past practice because I understand that it is not the time to continue with them, I need to switch to something else first and wait for the right time to come back.

For me, it has been hard to get to this point. First of all, it took me a few years to completely give up a seemingly rosy career plan and decide to become an artist. I certainly knew what it would mean for me and my family, and what kind of difficulties I would encounter, from life to career to personal issues. But I decided on this path, so I am experiencing the expected stresses and difficulties, as many people do. To be honest, I can’t remember how many times I’ve asked myself if it was really worth it to do this. What would I be doing now if I had chosen the path that seemed smoother? Wouldn’t I be living a much easier and happier life? But I don’t regret it, I know what I’m doing, I know the difficulties will always be over, even if the process hurts some. Try to stay upbeat and positive, and if it’s really too hard, hide and cry and accept my vulnerability and badness, it has helped me get through every difficult situation.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in this process is to accept myself, both in life and in my creativity. I am a perfectionist and have high expectations of myself. I used to judge myself a lot and feel dissatisfied with myself. Such a state is a vicious cycle that makes things worse and worse, as bad emotions and stress accompany me all the time, and the unrealistic goals I set for myself lead me to the next round of self-criticism. I’m not fully done learning the lesson of self-acceptance either, I’m still practicing, but I’m already feeling better. I’ve accepted my character flaws, flaws in my dealings with people, and flaws in my habits. In my practice, self-acceptance has helped me to unchain myself, and I rarely have to demand that my work meet certain outside standards and finishes any more, and I have accepted my slow and erratic creative rhythm.

My MFA program helped me a lot. I would like to say thanks to the very nice people I met in graduate school. I experienced creative freedom and received a lot of love and support while I was there. My teachers gave me a lot of tolerance and understanding, which was very helpful in learning self-acceptance. Because my major at the undergraduate level was marketing related, the two years of the graduate school became a turning point in my life and career that changed me so much. I would like to take this opportunity to say my thanks and I love you all very much.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’ve just moved to New York 5 months and I don’t think I know this fascinating and complex city yet. But if I have friends who love art coming to New York, I’m happy to show them to galleries all over the city beyond the major art museums. If my friends like Chinese food, I’ll take them to my favorite restaurants. If they want to relax, upstate is a great choice.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My Parents! They give me love and support!

Website: huang-peishan.com

Instagram: peishan_h_h / _peishan_huang_ (art account)

Image Credits
personal photo：by :iidrr & :iidrr studio