From New Statesman:
Huang Yong Ping has a beautiful, leopard-like cat that curls around his feet as he answers the door. It is the only touch of exoticism in his bare, immaculate apartment in Ivry-sur-Seine, the last remaining communist suburb of Paris. There is no art on the walls, none of the mess or chaos you might expect to find in the home of the founder of an avant-garde art movement. Cages for a hamster and a guinea pig occupy the hallway, reminding me uneasily of Theatre of the World, an installation for which Huang trapped a selection of animals inside a bare container and left them to devour each other, in full view of gallery-goers. Thankfully, these animals look fluffy and well-fed.
Huang himself is tiny, with glasses, a shapeless grey sweater and a shy smile. He sips green tea and answers questions slowly and thoughtfully in Mandarin. Despite living nearly 20 years in France he hasn’t mastered the language; perhaps he speaks eloquently enough through his work. He comes to London this month for his first solo UK show, “Frolic”, at the Barbican Art Gallery. Huang is planning a characteristically huge installation that will refer to the Opium Wars, fought between Britain and China in the 19th century. “I chose this subject because it was so dramatic, so full of cinematic elements – and also because I am Chinese,” he says, with a mischievous smile. “If I were Argentinian, I would have done a work on the Falklands War.”
