In this work, six wooden turntables are placed in an open rectangular leather bag and arranged in order of size, with the smallest on top. A photocopied sheet of paper attached to the bag’s interior features an image of the work and an explanation of how each turntable is used to determine the conditions of a painting, including where to begin painting from, the starting time, and the material. Six Small Turntables is one of the mechanical devices that Huang Yong Ping made during the 1980s to separate individual creativity from art. Reacting against the trend towards self-expression during the period, Huang sought to remove his own aesthetic preferences by incorporating roulette wheels, dice, and lottery systems into his works, proposing that art making should be left to chance and nature. He was greatly influenced by the conceptual approach of European artists such as Marcel Duchamp, as well as principles of Zen Buddhism that stress coexistence with nature. This work was included in the exhibition China/Avant-Garde in Beijing in 1989, after which time Huang moved to Paris.
Huang Yong Ping (born 1954, Fujian, died 2019, France) graduated from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou in 1982. In 1989, he emigrated to Paris, where he lived and worked until his death in 2019. Huang is best known for founding Xiamen Dada and for reworking architectural and animal forms into complex, provocative installations that challenge the viewer to reconsider art and national identity in recent history.