Double Square 双方藝廊

“I know that beneath the soft snow, there is firm soil, but this vast snowfield reflects sunlight so brightly that I cannot look at it directly. I fear that stepping onto it might cause the entire surface to give way, shattering like a mirror.”

Double Square Gallery is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of Huang Chih-Cheng, titled Snow Crash, which will run from July 19 to August 30, 2025. This marks the artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, featuring a series of works he has dedicated himself to researching in recent years. Through a distinctive visual language and the use of materials, Huang delves deeply into human cognitive disorders, the line between reality and virtuality, and perceptual experiences in the information age. The exhibition title “Snow Crash” highlights a core misconception in human cognition: the gambler’s fallacy, in which one believes the odds of a coin landing heads increase after a streak of heads, or the false sense of familiarity with a place never visited, where everything—landscape, smell, and sounds—is perceived as familiar. The unease caused by the vastness of white snow is juxtaposed with fragile glass. The stark difference between these materials—somehow mistakenly conflated in perception—illustrates Huang’s investigation into the blurred boundaries between human cognition and perception, a journey that unfolds through his use of materials.

Huang’s creative process begins with basic materials. He views the process of pasting metal foil onto paper as the “vowel” in his artistic language. By employing complex steps such as applying acrylic paint and layering adhesives, he creates distinctive textures and tactile surfaces on the paper. When pasting, the foil transforms from being merely a vehicle for pigments into a “developer” that reveals his creative process, hinting at sights of future potential images. The irregular reflections caused by adhesive ridges prompt Huang to further think about his composition, shadow placement, and the arrangement and layering of pigments. For him, this visual illusion is not deception but a result that combines rational calculation with intuition—a storytelling method that enables imagery to interact with reality. These images are inspired by his observations and reconstructions of everyday life. Drawing from travel, films, daily experiences, and browsing countless images online, Huang carefully filters and selects themes to reconstruct narratives with cinematic language, capturing moments perceived in life.

Lumen was conceived during a return flight when Huang noticed the sunlight streaming through the airplane window before takeoff. It raised questions in his mind: Can sunlight be held in one’s hands like water? How can the experience of travel be described? These vivid, intangible perceptions from everyday life are captured and translated through art, as tangible as holding sunlight in one’s palms.

These images, situated between the figurative and the abstract, oscillate between light and matter, transforming the viewing experience into an active, bodily one rather than just a visual activity. When viewers move in front of the works, light reflections shift and hidden details appear and fade, subtly challenging our trust in digital images. Huang does not aim to depict reality. Instead, he uses unique forms and materials to evoke the “happening” of images within the viewer’s mind. Through this memorable “viewing” experience, Huang invites us to step into the snowfield he has created and reconsider our perception of the world amid the delicate interplay of light and shadow.

 

Huang Chih-Cheng (b. 1988, Miaoli, Taiwan) holds an MFA from Tunghai University. His work, inspired by Eastern gouache and traditional ink painting, often uses metal foil as a base and combines mixed media, including ink, cotton thread, and images, to explore themes related to family history, life and death, and erotic desires. He won first prize at the 2015 Next Art Tainan, participated in the Tianmei Art Foundation’s “Taiwan Contemporary Artists Overseas Visit Program” (2016; 2019), and received its “Contemporary Artists Publishing Project” grant (2021). His works are included in the collections of the Tainan Art Museum and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Huang has exhibited at numerous venues in Taiwan and abroad, including at the Tsukuba Museum of Art, Ibaraki, Japan, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, the National Human Rights Museum, and the National Museum of Taiwan Literature.