Wennie Huang
Wennie Huang
Workspace Program Resident 2002
First, it was a challenge to try to create what I had in mind—it took a few tries to get it right—this challenge forced me to re-examine my artistic vocabulary. Secondly, it was fascinating to see how images from past work, as well as new images changed and evolved through the paper-making process. I was able to create new imagery (Baby Buddha) as a result of becoming more familiar with the possibilities of handmade paper. —Wennie Huang, 2002
As a second generation Taiwanese-American, Huang's work deals mainly with issues of Asian-American identity. At Dieu Donné, Huang spent her 7 days in the studio with Artistic Director Paul Wong executing a group of cast paper hats using plaster, filled Chinese straw hats as the molds. To do this, sheets of abaca paper were formed and pressed in the hydraulic press, laminated to the hats using methylcellulose as an adhesive between paper layers, and allowed to air dry.
Once dry, the paper forms were removed from the hat. In addition to these works, Huang also worked on a series of two-dimensional works using images of her grandmother and of a "baby Buddha." For these pieces, Huang used fabric paint to make line drawings on no-see-um mosquito netting which was used as a watermarking device on top of the papermaking mould. For these works, the artist and Paul Wong worked together to develop a new papermaking technique combining pulp painting and watermarking. The wet no-see-um/fabric paint watermark was placed on the papermaking mould and sprayed down with water. Then, pulp paint was used to fill in different areas of the fabric painted lines. Next, the deckle was put on the mould, holding the no-see-um in place, and the mould and deckle were used to gently pull a sheet of translucent abaca over the pulp painted watermark. Once the sheet was drained, it was couched onto a base sheet of colored pulp. The resulting piece is a clear, line watermark with the colored base sheet showing through and illuminating the lines, with areas of color carefully placed on top.
In the Studio
About the Artist
Wennie Huang received her BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute in 1994 and her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Michigan in 1996. Huang has been an artist-in-residence at the Lower East Side Printshop, Dieu Donné, Center for Books Arts, Urban Artist Initiative, and Sculpture Space. The New York Foundation for the Arts has supported her work in both 1999 and 2001, with an Artist Fellowship and a Special Opportunities Stipend. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and works at Parsons The New School for Design.
She has exhibited at the Hammong Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden, SUNY Cortland, Sculpture Space, Ameritas Foundation, the Center for Book Arts, Kelinert-James Gallery, Wave Hill House Gallery, The Print Center, and the International Print Center New York, among many others. She has installed an indoor/outdoor work at Wave Hill in Bronx, NY, comprised of hundreds of small, oval etched glass mirrors with images of ears, eyes, and noses. Indoors, the mirrors were suspended from the ceiling, and outdoors, they were floating above the grass, making for a wonderful play of light and space.
For more information, please visit their website: http://www.wenniehuang.com/