Website:
https://www.xiaoruihuangart.com
My work echoes my intellectual and artistic defiance of historical and contemporary human rights violations. It is an act of resistance against the cultural core values of contemporary Chinese society. My art practice is an act of freedom and defiance for myself as a Chinese. I experience and create space and form to express complicated thoughts and feelings. My work brings attention to the structural injustices against human rights in China. It empowers the next generation of people in China to step out of the government’s inherent compelled blocking. I have been living and studying outside of China for over ten years. I continue to experience tension between Western and Chinese freedom and personal expression concepts. Finding compelling ways to represent this tension has become central to my creative practice. Since 2020, my artwork has been blocked by the network system on all Chinese social media sites. The action of my multi-panel painting is my reaction to the White Paper Revolution following the fire in Urumqi last November 2022. The Zero-COVID policy lockdown in Urumqi stopped firefighters from rescuing people - ten people burned alive and nine were seriously injured. The fire triggered protests across China and other countries. In my piece, I used newspaper and painted canvas with acrylic paints and mediums collaged on top of a stretched white canvas, my rigorously activated process representing the White Paper Revolution.