Yu-Ru Huang
The Human Behind the Object
This project will create a meeting place for people’s words and their meanings.
Since 2005 Yu-Ru has created a collection of handwritten words through a project in which the participants wrote words that convey value and life experiences to them. She then incorporated their handwritings onto installations or objects that carry a metaphoric implication (such as a door or a kite). Spontaneous handwriting conveys natural beauty, which is disappearing in the digital age. This process also engages people who are normally outside of the arts community in art creation.
For this proposal, Yu-Ru plans to place hundreds of people’s handwritings onto a “Talking Wall”, an on-going and ever-changing 60ft mural project, Time in a Tide Pool, located at the Houston Taiwanese Community Center, in an area that historically lacks arts accessibility. The mural project invites immigrants to write digits (such as 19xx, or 20xx)—representing the dates or years significant to them in their lives. They wrote such digits onto an old chopstick and submitted it to the project as a found object for the mural.
In the 60-foot mural image surrounded by perpetually-flowing waves, the immigrants can find their chopsticks flowing along the currents. After finding their words as part of the artwork, the participants will be invited to an outdoor interview to talk about their inputs.
To follow Huang’s work, visit: https://www.yuruhuangart.com/