PRESENTER:
Is this a piece of equipment, or an artwork? In many ways, it’s both. Made by Huang Yong Ping in 1989, it’s highly representative of the artist’s changing approach to art at the time. Strongly influenced by the ancient Chinese divination text ‘I Ching’ , or ‘Book of Changes’, Huang Yong Ping was keen to resist the contemporary movement towards self-expressionism, and instead leave the creation of artworks to destiny, and chance.
SHEN YUAN:
After 1985, he intended to detach himself and his own thinking from his works and artistic practice. For instance, he started to make art based on ‘I Ching’ ; he used the turntables to determine what and when he made art.
PRESENTER:
That’s Shen Yuan, Huang Yong Ping’s wife. She told us exactly how an artist could spin these turntables to determine the form of their work.
SHEN YUAN:
The first small turntable determines whether it moves or not, which means whether to make art or not. The second turntable would decide where he made the work. When he moved the turntables, the third one would tell him at what time he should start making the work. Then the fourth one would determine the materials used, whilst the fifth one would tell him how to do it. The sixth turntable determines the frame of reference for his work.
PRESENTER:
Shen Yuan is an artist herself. We asked her whether she and her husband would ever discuss their work not just as partners, but as peers.
SHEN YUAN:
That's right, we’d have this kind of conversation on a daily basis. He would come ask my thoughts whenever he had any new project idea. Same with me. I would go to him for feedback. And we would either make some changes or carry on with what we were doing. We never, ever completely changed our plans because of our comments on each other's works, rather our discussion simply consolidated or validated some of our thoughts.
