A Balance of Darkness & Light
Story appeared in the 2017 issue of QMS Connections Magazine.
BY HAYLEY PICARD, COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
ALUMNI YU-WEN “JULIA” HUNG (‘05)
When people think of art, most envision beautiful, classical forms such as large oil paintings or marble sculptures in enormous sprawling museums and galleries.
Julia placing eggs for exhibit.
Irrational Pi by JuJu Hung
Julia Art Illustration by JuJu Hung
Yet, art usually serves a purpose beyond the aesthetic. Artists also use their craft to create pieces that bring awareness to social causes and stimulate conversation around issues of importance. The medium they choose, how they use colour and composition, can all be part of a deeper meaning behind a message to the world. It is this ability to blend art with life, and reflect on the balance, that never ceases to inspire Julia Hung (’05).
“Harmony is a very interesting concept for art and life,” says Hung. “Working on a piece of art, the external harmony is important (i.e., balance in medium helps conserve, while harmony in composition and colour aid in balancing visual elements). At the same time, internal harmony helps an artist to listen to and to express their inner voice, especially when both life and art struggle between idealism and reality.” For this professional artist, experiencing times of imbalance offers intriguing opportunities for expression in her field. “I believe facing disharmony is as important as finding harmony. It is similar to yin and yang, darkness and light…one’s existence depends on the other.”
Now based in Taipei, Taiwan, Julia shares that her perspective of the world was strongly shaped by her time at Queen Margaret’s School. “Ms. Angela Andersen was the first person who believed I could be an artist,” she says. “She taught me beyond what the curriculum asked for and always believed in me. This, combined with studying abroad in a new language, taught me cultural and life lessons. These experiences opened my mind, making me a strong, optimistic woman who could hopefully make a difference.”
Julia’s participation in Art Geneve, part of the New Heads Foundation BNP Paribas Art Awards, enabled her to showcase this strength through a display on her concerns around food transparency and the blurring between reality and the artificial. Entitled In the Mood for Egg?, Julia’s exhibit utilized visual elements of egg production such as the chicken cage and feed, placed under strange lighting, while dozens of apparently cooked eggs in blue muffin cups lined a nine-meter hallway. These eggs were artificial and inedible. On the opposite side of the room tables filled with hundreds of edible imitation eggs dared exhibit goers to think about their personal definition of real.
“Inspired by news of fake eggs in China and vegan eggs from the United States, I wanted to delve into today’s food market. Consumers have never been as unsure of where their food comes from, and how it is made, as they are today. It is the same with news and art. We live in a world between the real and the fake. We create, listen to, and even believe stories that sell brands, somehow giving them existence beyond the stories. They may not be 100% real, but they are surely not fake, merely artificial.”
Following her successful show in Geneva, Hung’s energies are currently focused on collaborative work with people with learning disabilities and reflecting deeply on her own reality. “It is always interesting to look into concepts from the past. One immerses in a parallel universe, wonders what changed one’s mind and imagines all the different possibilities. The new fuses with the old, struggling to find balance.”
Julia reminds us that sometimes it is these moments of imbalance which can lead us to new insight. “Whether it is in art or in any other aspect of life, harmony must be disturbed and then recreated from time to time.”