Steph Huang｜Dérive / Détournement Consumerist Deconstruction and Ecological Reflection from a Situationist Perspective
Writer: Steffi
Date: 09/21/2024
Keywords: environmental impact/ consumer culture/ food production/ colonialism
Whilst the work of chefs and artists may seem unrelated at first glance, there lie in fact many commonalities in their creative process. For Taiwanese artist Steph Huang, who used to be a chef, all her experiences in the kitchen have now become a source of inspiration, enriching her artistic repertoire. Methods of handling, packaging, and promoting food are skillfully interwoven into her approach to sculptures and installations. Currently based in London, Huang freely experiments across various mediums, including sculpture, installation, photography, and film, to create poetically charged and nuanced artworks of quiet resonance. She often uses everyday objects and mass-produced items to reflect on various contemporary concerns, such as the environmental impact of consumer culture and the relationship between food production and colonialism.
There Is Nothing Old Under the Sun, Installation view at Standpoint, London, 2024
“Dérive”—意为“漂移”，是上世纪五六十年代法国情景主义国际（Situationist International）的一群先锋艺术家们发明的一种艺术方法。艺术家们提倡一种在城市中漫无目的的漂游，来反抗既定的意义、掀起对日常生活的革命，将存在的瞬间艺术化来对抗蔓延至生活各处的社会异化与拜物主义。而“Dérive”的下一步则是“Détournement”即“异轨”，一种将旧有的物品以颠倒的方式重新创作的手法。Steph Huang的创作过程受到情景主义国际的影响，其中的第一步，一个可以类比为收集食材的过程，就需要通过Dérive来开启。
Back in the 1960s, the Situationists wandered across the streets of Paris with their unique concept of dérive, which describes a drifting state in the city where one engages in an emotional disorientation in an urban landscape. Defying existing habits and structures in advanced capitalism, the act of dérive confronts social alienation, estrangement, and pervasive consumerism in everyday life. Détournement then serves as a weapon against mass media and consumerist society, where the artist appropriates and subverts the existing object, making the newly created work embody a meaning that is antagonistic or antithetical to the original. Adopting such concepts of the Situationist International, Huang’s creative process begins with dérive, as she enacts the first step of her work which is analogous to gathering ingredients.
Out of Order, Mild steel, tin, UV printed mild steel sheet, paper, 64 x 192.5 x 17 cm, 2023
伦敦、巴黎、台湾，Steph Huang在数年的时间里走访一条条街道、一处处市场。她在城市中漂游，在路边捡起一件件普通的物件，进行着她的“食材”收集。这其中有食用后躺在路边的有着明艳图案包装的熟食罐头，也有被丢弃的置物架、设计独特的街边家具等等。对于那些物件，Steph Huang关注的并不是物件背后的意义与作用，而单单是他们的形状与材质。由此，她可以在日后的创作过程中随意地融入这些物件，并将它们“烹饪”成全新的模样来满足当时创作的作品所需要的元素，这也就像是在Dérive之后的Détournement。
Over the course of several years, the Taiwanese artist has drifted across the streets and markets of London, Paris, and Taiwan. She drifts through the city, capturing eccentric moments with her analogue camera and collecting ‘ingredients’ by picking up ordinary objects along the way. Vividly patterned canned foods discarded on the roadside, abandoned shelves, and distinctive street furniture may coincidentally catch her attention. Rather than focusing on the meaning and function of these objects, Huang is captivated by their forms and textures. She freely incorporates them into her future creations, ‘cooking' them into new forms to meet the needs of her artistic pursuit—much like the process of détournement that follows dérive.
Detail of Dolphin Screen, 2024, Stained plywood, glass, copper, bronze, mild steel (left)
Return Home, 2024, Bronze, 66.5 x 13 x 5 cm (right)
Return Home, 2024, Bronze, 66.5 x 13 x 5 cm (right)
此外在艺术家对城市的探索中，她还品尝各地特色，记录下当地的声音与气味，并从漫步中体味一座城市独特的语言习惯与那些自发生长且无处不在的非正式建筑。例如，自2022年起Steph Huang就探访了英国各地的海滨小镇与鱼市。在德文郡的海边，有许多小型的渔业社区，那里的人们拖网捕鱼，潜水入海去捞扇贝、青花鱼等海鲜，还会编织蟹笼。目前在伦敦中心的金融城与东区的波普啦，有着英国最大的海鲜市场比林斯盖特（Billingsgate）和肉类市场史密斯菲尔德（Smithfield），将许多像德文郡一样的小镇的渔业与畜牧业商品带入城市的最中心，并将食物背后的生产过程与丰富的生活感带给伦敦的人们。
Huang’s exploration of cities also involves tasting local delicacies, recording the unique sounds and smells of a place, and immersing herself in the local language and informal architecture. Since 2022, Steph Huang has visited numerous ports and fish markets across the UK. In Devonshire, there are many small fishing communities where people trawl and dive into the sea for fish, scallops, and mackerel. The products of little seaside towns in Devonshire are brought into the busy Billingsgate market, just as how the Smithfield market traces the production of meat in British livestock industry. Through these two major food markets, Londoners hemmed in the urban landscape can thus connect with the rich, lived experiences behind food production.
The installation view at Volt, Eastbourne (up) Two-minute film clip - Deep Shallow, 2022
可是这两座有着悠久历史的食品市场都即将迁往伦敦东部的郊区德根纳姆（Dagenham），在进行了许多探访后，Steph Huang对此是充满担忧的。她认为，这些食品市场是商家和消费者混合、交融的独特民主空间，而这些民主空间的丧失，会进一步减少人们与食物的直接接触以及这些行为背后丰富的文化交流。生活在伦敦中心的人们，将不再有这样直接与食物接触的机会，取代当地食材的是随时从全世界冷运过来的丰富食材。琐碎的日常都会被大型连锁超市货架上那一排排预先切好、包装好的冷藏肉类、鱼类、蔬菜所掩盖，最后淹没在堆在手推车里的一个个商品中。
However, both of these historic food markets are soon set to relocate to Dagenham, in the suburbs of East London, and after many visits, Steph Huang is filled with concern about this change. The artist believes these markets are unique democratic spaces where merchants and consumers mingle, and their loss will further reduce people’s direct interaction with food and the cultural exchanges these interactions foster. Residents of central London will no longer have opportunities for direct contact with locally sourced food; instead, they’ll be surrounded by imported goods transported from across the globe, readily available in chain supermarkets such as Tesco and Waitrose. Slices of everyday life will become obscured as the hurried crowd grab items from refrigerated shelves full of pre-cut, and well-packaged food. As one stacks up their pile of groceries in their shopping baskets and trolleys, the delicacies and liveliness behind food production and consumption vanishes unknowingly.
Still image from the film See, See, Sea, Tate Britain, London, 2024
艺术家最近在泰特美术馆的Art Now系列免费展览See, See, Sea，就是Steph Huang对以上问题的深度探讨。展览中，See, See, Sea, 2024是一部记录了此前Huang探访的德文郡渔业的录像，水中捕捉鱼生的画面映衬着艺术家的一系列雕塑与装置作品。许多由玻璃吹制的有着灯一样造型的雕塑与货物筐等现成物并列，天花板上垂下的一根根线条与渔网呼应着录像影片中的画面，将海滨小镇鱼市中的捕捉场景以一种冰冷而坚硬的方式带入了泰特美术馆的空间中。
Part of Tate Britain’s Art Now exhibition, Huang’s current show See, See, Sea, navigates the relationship between food and land, and confronts the threats to local communities in global food commerce. See, See, Sea, 2024, is a documentary film revealing Huang’s journey in Devonshire, showing footage of fishermen capturing scallops and fish deep underwater. Acting as a backdrop for the exhibition, the film is juxtaposed with a series of her minimalist sculptures and installations. Artworks of contradicting material and qualities, such as the delicate, hand-blown glass sculptures are displayed alongside ready-made and re-arranged objects like cargo baskets. The entire exhibiting space is enwreathed with cables and fishing nets hanging from the ceiling, echoing the scenes in the documentary and bringing the seaside fish markets into Tate’s gallery space in a cold and stark manner.
Steph Huang, Served Chilled, Installation view, Tate Britain, 2024 © Steph Huang Photo © Tate (Joe Humphrys)
这个空间内食物消费的痕迹也同样无处不在。展览的入口处写有“served chilled”字样的霓虹灯仿造出高档餐厅的氛围，青铜制成的扇贝壳模型点缀了整个展览，象征着食品工业下难以被人窥见的工业废品。这些青铜雕塑是艺术家在捕渔船上收集的扇贝壳的复制品，她将它们铸成模型，然后在她的手中通过无意识的动作揉捏，不断延展、变形，最后被雕刻成展览中的样子。
Symbols of food consumption are omnipresent in this space. The ‘served chilled’ neon sign at the entrance of the exhibition hints at the ambiance of an upmarket restaurant, while tiny bronze casts of scallop shells are scattered throughout, referring to the industrial waste in the food production rarely seen by the consumer. Meld from scallop shells Huang collected on fishing boats and cast into bronze models, Huang creates these works through the unconscious movements of her hands, resulting in the transformation of known objects.
许多由废弃的食物罐头和包装打造出的作品被放置在平面上，被压扁扁形的手推车则被摆放于地面，逼真的金属无花果掉落在变形的手推车上，显示出一种变软腐烂的模样，凋零在地面。这一画面让人想起伦敦的街道上果树成熟后掉下来无端浪费的果子，或是默默腐烂，或是被行人、车辆踩碎。这些关于食品包装与资本扩张下的食品消费文化的意象同样指向了日渐严重的大量生产下的食品浪费问题。与此同时，生态自然的食品文化似乎越来越遥远，一切都在异化，变得无机，而我们与食物间的距离也变得愈来愈远。
Other works made from abandoned food cans and packaging are precisely placed on the floor. In the centre lie a distorted shopping trolley and delicate casts of figs dotted amongst the still trolley frame. Notably, the figs have been skilfully deformed and twisted, appearing soft and decayed, almost melting into the ground. This scene evokes the image of fruit falling from trees and being wasted on the streets of London, either silently rotting or brutally crushed by pedestrians and vehicles. Huang utilises such imagery to highlight the escalating issues of food waste under consumerism and mass production as a result of advanced capitalism. Meanwhile, the contemporary living experience is increasingly inorganic and alienated, widening the gap between us and our food.
Steph Huang, Sunday Shopping List, Installation view, Tate Britain, 2024 © Steph Huang Photo © Tate (Joe Humphrys)
今年年初在香港的Art Basel，Steph Huang展示了一系列能唤起人们对香港饮食文化感触的作品。正如艺术家所说，“无论你走到世界的哪个角落，食物是能使所有人连结起来的东西，并有着它独特的叙事。我永远能记住我吃过的餐厅，那些风味、那些口感，而香港就是一个能让人感受到许多的城市。”从这一角度出发，Huang构建出一个类似亚洲餐厅与菜市场的空间，这一次她采用了许多能让人想起香港的冰室、茶餐厅、与家常餐桌的印花图样来丰富整个空间。例如Prawn Mocktail这样的玻璃吹制雕塑显得无比晶莹剔透，而玻璃这一材质带来了不可避免的脆弱和易坏感，就如同食物本身，可大虾那浑然天成的神态又在这破坏和腐烂的预示下混杂一线生机。
Earlier this year at the Hong Kong edition of Art Basel, Steph Huang presented a series of works that bring back people’s memories of Hong Kong’s culinary culture. As the artist noted, “No matter where you go in the world, food is something we can all bond over, and it has such a narrative. I can always remember the restaurants I’ve eaten at, the tastes and flavours, and you definitely feel that in Hong Kong.” Drawing from her experience trying to understand this mesmerising city, Huang constructed a nostalgic space reminiscent of Asian restaurants and markets, embellished with print patterns that recall Hong Kong-style cafes, diners, and family dining tables. Pictured here is Huang’s glass-blown sculpture Prawn Mocktail with a crystalline translucence feature. The medium of glass imbues it with a sense of inevitable fragility, resonating with the delicate nature of the food itself, while the shrimp’s vivid form adds a touch of vitality despite the hints of decay and decomposition.
Prawn Cocktail, 2023, Mild steel, hand-blown glass, 160 x 12 x 14 cm，2024
另一方面，Steph Huang在Art Basel展出的这一系列增加了许多的趣味和幽默。一个金属的圆罐里堆满了闪闪发光的黄铜制成的三角形Fortune Cookie（幸运饼干），在圆罐的侧面则有一行镂空的波浪形文字遗憾地告诉人们：“The Fortune You Seek Is In Another Cookie”。艺术家从全世界中餐厅常见的幸运饼干衍生至人们广泛的对财富的追求，可这样无尽的追求却带来全球性的过度消费和因渴望财富而来的迷失。这样的遗憾也许就是空心的幸运饼干带来的信息。
Huang’s new body of work at Art Basel was infused with a sense of humour and playfulness that showcased another characteristic of her artistic oeuvre. A round silver can filled with brass fortune cookies bears a wave-like inscription on its side: “The Fortune You Seek Is In Another Cookie.” The artist draws from the ubiquitous fortune cookies found in Chinese restaurants worldwide, expanding the discussion to a broader reflection on society’s endless pursuit of wealth. This relentless pursuit often leads to overconsumption and a sense of disillusionment, mirrored by the hollow nature of the fortune cookies in Huang’s work.
Art Basel Hong Kong - Discoveries 1C37, Installation view at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 2024
类似的讽刺出现在一个形似老虎机上的多媒介作品上，其中三只小猪连成一线，名为The Liberty Bell的作品在此刻仿佛发出了中奖的铃声，同样表现出一种幽默的贪婪和享乐感。Steph Huang的系列作品表现出了各种各样有关食物与消费的文化符号，仿佛从香港的各个角落集合而来。正如同香港自身的矛盾感——都市高楼与匆匆路过的西装革履旁是烧肉店里屠刀落下的声音，艺术家所展示的一切也有着一种隐形张力角逐中的怪异感。
Equally ironic is the multimedia piece resembling a slot machine. With three cartoon pigs aligned in a row, the work, titled The Liberty Bell, seems to ring with the sound of a jackpot, embodying a sense of humorous greed and indulgence. Through this exhibition, Steph Huang explores various cultural symbols related to food and consumerism that are tied to the streets of Hong Kong. Just as Hong Kong itself is a contradicting city, where a corner away from the rush of suited professionals in the bustling financial centre is a butcher slicing Char siu in a local diner, Huang’s body of work displays a subtle tension amidst these bizarre juxtapositions.
The Liberty Bell, UV print on aluminum, plywood, MDF, emulsion, bronze, 62 × 38 × 5 cm, 2024
接下来，Steph Huang将会在台北的洪健全基金会带来她的全新个人展览Property For Sale。她将继续她对城市内生态的细节探讨，不过跳出食品产业，这次她将聚焦房地产业与城市中个人对空间的使用。人们都希望拥有自己的地方来稳固自身的存在，想要拥有一块土地、空间的欲望使人们处在一种持续的不安中，在吉屋出售的招牌背后是一个个寻求庇护、渴望找到自己所在的都市人。艺术家将通过一系列装置作品去探索台湾在多重文化影响下的发展史和将这日渐拥挤的土地分配给每个人的代价。映现出的困难与矛盾背后，是人们在这其中不断漂流至今对空间和自身归属感的追寻。
Next up the Taiwanese artist will unveil her latest solo exhibition, Property For Sale, at the Hong Foundation in Taipei. Huang will continue her lyrical exploration of the urban living experience but shift to zoom in on the property market and the occupation of space in urban landscapes. Huang questions how the desire to seek the affirmation of one’s existence through ownership of land and space leaves one in a state of perpetual anxiety. Behind the ‘For Sale’ signs are individuals seeking shelter and longing to find their place to belong. Through an assemblage of multidisciplinary works, the artist will explore Taiwan’s history of post-colonial land and social development, and the rocketing costs of land distribution. Unearthing the struggles and contradictions, Steph Huang merges her autobiographical narratives with the ongoing universal pursuit of ownership and belonging in an ever-drifting existence.
艺术家介绍 Artist Introduction
来自台湾的 Steph Huang 在 2021年于英国皇家艺术学院完成了她的硕士雕塑学位，现居于伦敦。她在雕塑、装置等艺术媒介的创作过程中使用玻璃吹制、金属熔制、木工、印刷等多样的工艺来构建拥有丰富层次的叙事的作品，将她自身的经历与社会的诸多现象融合进艺术中。近期正于泰特美术馆展出展览 See,See,Sea，近期的个人展览还包括在伦敦 Standpoint 艺廊的 There Is Nothing OldUnder The Sun，弗赖堡 E-WERK 的 The Water that Bears theBoat等等,并曾于2023年获得Mark Tanner Sculpture Award奖项。
Taiwanese artist Steph Huang completed her MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2021 and is currently based in London. Her practice spans sculpture and installation, employing diverse techniques such as glassblowing, metal casting, woodworking, and printmaking to construct works rich in layered narratives. Through these processes, Huang interweaves personal experiences with broader social phenomena, transforming them into complex artistic inquiries.
Her recent projects include the exhibition See, See, Sea at Tate Britain, as well as solo shows such as There Is Nothing Old Under the Sun at Standpoint Gallery, London, and The Water that Bears the Boat at E-WERK Freiburg. In 2023, she was awarded the prestigious Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, further affirming her position as an emerging voice within contemporary sculpture.