Chia Huang

Image from “Rivage” project by Chia Huang

Biographie

Instagram: @chiahuang_eyes

Born in Taiwan, Chia Huang is a visual artist currently in her final year at the Beaux-Arts de Paris and a graduate of Villa Arson in Nice. Her work incorporates photography, painting, collage and video. Following people living on the margins of society, she develops a collaborative practice with her subjects, creating collective projects composed of documentary photography and amateur drawings. She has exhibited at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Palais de Tokyo, Le BAL, the MEP, Luma Arles, the MoCA Taipei, the Taipei Performing Arts Center and the Beaux-Arts de Paris. In 2024, she was awarded the Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award.

Le projet

"Rivage" is a documentary project I have been developing since 2017 along the 370 kilometers of Taiwan’s west coast and the Taiwan Strait. It questions both the present and the future. This country - my own -is among the most threatened in the world, by both warfare and climate change. An island rich in historical layers, it is fractured from within by tensions and the deep ambiguity surrounding its national identity.

I have sought to explore, on spiritual, intimate, and global levels, the relationship between the inhabitants and this coast, this sea that surrounds, nurtures, and threatens them. Also, their connection to the rivers that meander lazily, destined either to vanish or to merge with the ocean. What does the Taiwan Strait that separates us from China mean to us, the Taiwanese? What does water signify, and what does insularity imply? This work dives into the collective imagination and insular identity of the people, capturing that mixture of distance, resignation, isolation, and at times, abandonment. Water acts as a double-edged wall—a promise of protection and a constant threat. To give form to this ambivalence, I chose a hybrid artistic approach, incorporating collages and maps to create a visual depth that reveals the island’s soul.

Image from “Rivage” project by Chia Huang

Image from “Rivage” project by Chia Huang

Taiwan’s urban planning, marked by different historical periods, seems to have been shaped by shades of gray, devoid of future vision and respect for nature—as if its inhabitants were to leave tomorrow. Yet, through my collages—blending visual fragments of chaotic landscapes and carefully selected scenes of island idleness—an unexpected beauty emerges. To me, our existence becomes a collective artistic installation, where neglect, bitterness, and disillusionment take on a strange charm. In Rivage, this visual hybridization reveals not only our isolation but also an involuntary creativity that transforms our environment into a slightly melancholic work of art—a reflection of our history and resilience