A
faded newspaper photo from 1989 documents the struggles of student protesters in
China's Tiananmen Square. At the center of the photo is a young, striking and
determined woman caught up in the energy of the crowd."Yes, that's me - can you believe it?" says Houston artist and around-the-world transplant Weihong with a smile. "I was right in the middle of the action, trying to make a difference."
Fifteen years later, Weihong hasn't changed. The friendly, open free-thinker mixes tradition with innovation, blurring the lines between positive and negative space, artist and audience, black and white, even yin and yang. Her paintings, installations, prints and performances - "I do all media!" she laughs - express her interpretation of the circle of life.
"I have been lucky," she continues, "because I have found people who understand the language inside of me. No matter what the media, it's still the same message: everything is connected, and everything takes place in life because of interaction."
She has expressed this message in a variety of memorable shows and exhibits, including an interactive 36-day Tea Ceremony "255 - 0 + Tea" at Houston's Positive/Negative Space Gallery in 2002, a site-specific digital media installation at Lawndale Art Center called "Weihong: Golden Dragon Diary" in 2001, and possibly her most ambitious show to date: "255 - 0 + Ping Pong" in 2003 at DiverseWorks.
The show got its name from the RGB color numbers assigned when designing on a computer: white is RGB 255 and black is RGB 0. "So it was not about black and white, but about what happens in the space between black and white - the areas of transition," she explains. "That's where you find the spirit."
And what did happen between black and white? A lot. It was an interactive show featuring two looping DVD video projects, several Ping Pong game sets divided horizontally into black and white halves, two plastic containers with 6,000 black and white Ping Pong balls, four "spirit" walls and three interactive art installation views. "When people take part in the art, they become a literal art object, and that keeps constantly changing," she adds. "Just like life."
Born in the capital city of Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China, Weihong got a rough start. Suffering from kidney problems from infancy, she was virtually bedridden for months at a time while her siblings attended school. Day after day, she would lie there immobilized, observing everything around her in great detail. She developed a sharp eye and a unique way of looking at things.
When she was seven, she started committing her vision to paper, and it was then that it became apparent that this sick young girl was also a very talented artist. And when she finally recovered, her artistic zeal continued unabated, as she furiously sketched the images of China's turmoil during the Cultural Revolution. When the Revolution came to an end in 1977 and the universities were reopened not until 1979, Weihong was the only one artist in her province to be admitted to art school in Beijing in 1981. When she and her classmates designed and built the Statue of Freedom during the Tianenmen Square incident, she and many of her peers were exiled from Beijing. She landed on her feet at South China Normal University in Guangzhou, where she taught art classes.
Eventually, she met her husband, an American oceanographer named Paul Kronfield. He brought her back to his hometown of Houston and she's been here ever since.
"I didn't know what to think when I got here. It was so flat and all you'd see were cars. I was used to seeing people," she laughs. "But eventually, I started learning my way around and the first time I saw the downtown skyline, I thought it was magic!" she adds.
She quickly became part of the art community, developing friendships with Lucas Johnson and William Steen, among others. "They were great mentors to me and they 'woke me up' out of the coma I'd been in. I hadn't been doing art in a while," she sighs.
"Houston has nurtured me. All the friendships I have here have made me stronger and better as an artist," she adds. Says Deborah Colton, a long-time friend, admirer and supporter, "Weihong is amazingly talented and is making a difference globally in terms of cultural understanding. She's incredible at mixing traditions of the past with trendsetting future media."
Colton puts her money where her mouth is: she's also a Weihong collector. Other notable Houstonians who are collecting Weihong's work include John and Beverly Berry, Walter Hopps, Carolyn Farb, Gus Kopriva, Peter Zweig and Lester Marks. Her work can also be found in the Free International University World Art Collection in Zeist, the Netherlands; the National Art Gallery in Beijing, and the Shanghe Gallery in Sichuan, China.
You can check out Weihong's work in person this month, as Houston's Redbud Gallery exhibits her solo show "255 - 0 + GuZheng", beginning May 8.
For more information about Weihong, and to learn more about her work, visit www.weihong.org