To appreciate Yan Huang’s work, context is the key. There are clues in the materials she works with, the lines she defines, the extraordinary level of finish. But it’s Yan’s story – from her childhood in China to the present studio space set on Victoria’s basalt plains – which gives the best understanding.
There was evidence of an artist from early on: her maternal grandmother who raised her in Xiamen indulged her, allowing her to draw directly on the walls, “… everywhere, as high as I could reach: my grandfather thought it was ridiculous.” Yan would eventually study fine art at university in China, at a time when there was a growing interest in western culture. “My family encouraged me to broaden my experience, and so l moved to Melbourne to study further at RMIT.” This was a turbulent period for her country and following Tiananmen Square, the Australian Government granted residencies to Chinese students. For Yan it would lead her to establish Australia as her base. “I took the advice of one of my final year lecturers who’d had a career in automotive design.” That advice together with a very real need for independent financial security led Yan to a career in design that would consume her for decades to come.
Yan immersed herself in designing automotive interiors, a role that would take her from Melbourne to Detroit, to Turin, to Shanghai. In the car business there are cars to be driven, and those to exhibit. Yan helped design both. The Buick Centieme concept car (2002) and aXessaustralia concept car (1998, Museums of Victoria Collection) are examples of high automotive art that Yan put her name to. She describes the passion she had for her automotive work as coming from a trilogy of process: the idea, the modeling, the making of the final product.
Fast forward to this current era and the creative trilogy still holds firm though the language has shifted. Working now in the studio which overlooks a sweeping stretch of rural Victoria, it’s about the inspiration, exploring the fabrication, the making of the final piece. The stress and constraints of her former career have been left behind. “There are no expectations other than my need to express and create.”
Yan’s current work is sinuous, robust, polished, exploratory. The suite of materials is open-ended: metals, stone, woods, glass, polymers. There’s a whisper of practicality and playfulness about the pieces. A narrative is always there: a whale’s tale; the tension within a sculpture-seat entitled Embrace; ecological extinction in a cuckoo clock;a bullet-casing menorah*.
*Menorah/Beacon of Hope is in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.
EXHIBIT
2021 We Change The World, NGV Australia, The Ian Potter Centre
2021 Wisdom of Objects, Melbourne Design Week, NGV
2020 Daydream, Melbourne Design Week, NGV
2019 Superficial, Melbourne Design Week, NGV
2018 VIVID awards, Melbourne Exhibition Center
2018 Decoding Design, Melbourne Design Week, NGV
2017 Departures, Melbourne Design Week, NGV
2017 Luminescence, The Gallery, St Kilda Town Hall
2016 Australian Contemporary Emerging (ACE) Design Awards, Brisbane
2016 VIVID awards, Melbourne Exhibition Center
2015 The Great Mandala, Toyota Spirit Gallery
2014 madART group show, Toyota Spirit Gallery
DESIGN
1999 – 2013 General Motors Global Design
2012 – 2013 GM Holden Advance Design, Melbourne, Australia
2010 – 2012 PATAC Design, Shanghai, China
1999 – 2010 General Motors Tech Center, Warren, USA
1998 – 1999 PATAC Design, Shanghai, China
1994 – 1998 Millard Design,Melbourne, Australia
PUBLISH
2020 Geelong Regional Art Atlas: In Conversation Series.(24 Sep)
2020 The age Art: Daydream believers aim for inspiration in every sense.(18 March)
2020 Timeout Melbourne: You can explore this dreamy Melbourne art installation online.(30 March)
2020 Geelong Independent: Yan visit city by design. (28 Feb)
2019 The Centre: On Art and Urbanism in China, published by NGV
2018 Crayon to CAD, A history of post-war automotive design in Australia, P. Beranger, C2 publishing
2018 Domus Design Magazine
2018 Green Magazine
2018 Design Addicts
2018 James Tremble
2015 Shifting Gears: Design, innovation & the Australian car