During a single lifespan, the body consistently undergoes change – growing, aging, gaining or losing weight, sickening, dying – due to various factors including time and environmental space. The body must be flexible enough to adapt to changing external conditions. In the early 1990s, Huang Chih-Yang began to study the human body by observing plants and animals. In this series, Huang’s strong, quick calligraphy brushstrokes form the outlines of skeletal shapes on full-length sheets of rice paper, structurally borrowing the form of the draped flags common to Taiwanese folk ceremonies. The skeletons resemble humans yet maintain visual references to animal and plant life. Large, exaggerated sexual organs created with heavy black lines adorn the fragile bodies. Although Huang follows the traditional Chinese ink painting technique, stamping his name with a seal of red ink, he imprints the word “cock” as his signature. Huang also combines the Chinese characters Xiao-Xiao together to form a new word; when pronounced in the same Fukien dialect the meaning of this phrase is “insanity.” Huang uses traditional forms and media to create work which questions traditional morals to reflect on the situation of modern humanity, and the relationship between the body and its natural and man-made environments.

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