#04 Valency : Participants : Huan Wang

How do you know that the edge of today is the edge of yesterday?

In September, I travelled from London to Orkney, the northern edge of British land. For the first time I felt my gaze was different from the gaze of the people of this land. There are no unoccupied edges on this land; everything is in human time. They always look towards the sea. But my hometown is a small coastal town in southeastern China, and we have always been drawn to the inland. The edge on the other side of the land seemed unreachable.

In London, we have the impression that the sea is to the south or east. But Orkney's narrative exists in a circle, about comes and goes. I walked along the edge of the land guided by raw physical experience. But the Orkney waves confounded me, they came from all directions and crashed towards the land. Hearing the sound of the sea and walking towards the seaside can not help to identify the direction. And It was so windy and cold that standing and walking became a tiring task:

‘ Rest in the Gap ’

To survive in strong winds,
When living at the edge of the world,
Just lie down together,
Layers by layers,
Be clever,
Be lazy.
Rest in the gap,
Rest by circle.

The posture and perspective of lying down allow us to discover the same intelligent lives - the grass lying together with the wind, the limpets spending their lives in the crevices of the rocks, the seaweed floating in the shape of the waves... We move in the gap when the wind leaves, and hug in a warm and yellow circle. All things are born and live in the gaps, die and sleep under the land and water.

Today the uneasiness of missing direction disappears because we have a bird's eye view of the world thanks to satellite technology. We don't care how complex the urban landscape is built because we no longer rely on it for orientation. But we cannot bear to lose technology. Original physical experience is suppressed in today's urban landscape.

We lost a yellow heart.

Huan Wang works across text, textiles, installation and film. She studies and lives in London as a cultural traveller, telling the connection between human and other existences in the modern urban space in the way of poetry and material narrative.

Her artistic practice conveys the sense of being as a human and explores the intersection of strength and fragility. While carefully and equally approaching the fragile fringes of the natural world, pointing to the neglected marginal and subaltern existence of human society is a common theme in her textile work.

Wang's textile works are partly emotional fragments and partly document her natural experiences in urban spaces. Sometimes it is a line of poetry, or a name, calling for a past that has not gone far.

During the creative process, Huan maintains a genuine, physical connection with the collected objects, allowing her to preserve their inherent sense of time. By touching the materials, she solidifies her personal narrative, infusing it with a tangible quality.

Website (RCA): Huan Wang

  Instagram: Huan Wang