For climate eco-artist, time is of the essence as wake up call looms

The '921' killer earthquake in Taiwan in 1999 inspired

Vincent Huang to devote himself to environmental and climate-related

issues on a global scale. This month he travels to Qatar to attend a

major U.N. climate conference in Doha.

For eco-artist Vincent J.F. Huang (黃瑞芳), all the world's a stage, from

the beaches of Tuvalu to the conference halls of major climate

conferences. This month he's in Qatar in the Middle East to attend a

United Nations climate confab, and he'll be exhibiting some of his

works there.



While Taiwan does not have many climate activists working in the

international arena, Huang is a climate artist with a vision and he's

out to put his stamp on public awareness issues worldwide. Now

in his early 40s, the Nantou County native went overseas to study art

in Scotland and received a master's degree from Grays School of Art

there. Huang's goal is to help wake up the world -- and

his native Taiwan -- about the possible dangers of unchecked climate change and

global warming in the future.



With these issues in mind, Huang has travelled to Qatar this week for

COP 18, a U.N. climate conference, where he plans to make a plea for

more attention to be paid to peple of the Pacific

island of Tuvalu. In September, Huang visited the island nation where

he exhibited some of his works on a picturesque beach and met with

government officials there.



In a recent interview with this blog, Huang said in that he

felt at home there and came back to Taipei impressed by

both the islanders and their government.



"The government and islanders were both very supportive of my two

visits, one in 2010 and one this September, and they

appreciated the eco-art projects I created to try to draw more

international attention to the situation Tuvalu is facing in regard to

climate change and rising sea levels," Huang said.



When asked what kind of impact he feels his eco-art has on viewers

worldwide, Huang said that as an artist, he believes in

the power of art to effect change in attitudes.



"The kind of spectacle art installations I do have a visual impact

that can lead people around the world to not only pay more attention

to the crisis Tuvalu is facing on a daily basis, but also to picture

more vividly the global problems of climate change," he said.



Setting up art installions on remote Pacific island and travelling to

Qatar take time and money, of course. Huang received a travel grant

from the Taipei Yuan Shan Rotary Club. (台北圓山扶輪社) to fund his two visits to

Tuvalu, he said, and for that he's grateful. The Republic of China's

ambassador in Tuvalu, Larry Tseng (曾瑞利), was also very helpful, he

said.



However, in general, it's difficult for independent artists like Huang

to get funding in

Taiwan since his climate-related works are not for sale or for art

collectors.



"It's ironic that many corporate enterprises here in Taiwan talk a lot

about eco-friendly beliefs but very few CEOs want to do things like

Britain's Sir Richard Branson," Huang said. "Branson puts his money

where his mouth is, and uses his public relations clout and his money

to sponsor socially-relevant events and eco-art projects."



"Most people in Taiwan today don't believe that what is happening to

Tuvalu could ever happen to this island nation," he said. "As an

artist, I'm surprised that people here still don't get it and that is

a main reason I am doing my art projects. I want to wake people up in

Taiwan, too. We are very much part of the ocean world, too."



When asked how he goes about the time-consuming and arduous work of

contacting government officials in a small country like Tuvalu, Huang

said he relied on patience and help from the Taiwanese embassy there

in conducting what he calls "art diplomacy."



"My 2010 eco-art project in Tuvalu helped connect me with governmental

ministers there, and those connections enabled me to go there again

this fall," he said. "It took me about 10 months of communicating back

and forth via email with Tuvaluan officials and our Taiwanese embassy.

Unfortunately, I don’t always succeed with art diplomacy like this, as

the government of China tries to interfere."



Huang was born in 1971 in the small town of Shuili (水里) in Nantou

County (南投). When a reporter asked what led him to pursue the winding

path of an artist, Huang said that what really got him going as a

young man was the killer earthquake of September 21, 1991, noting:

"The 921 quake destroyed a lot of buidlings and homes in Nantou and

other counties -- and my home, too, was destroyed. The earthquake made

me start to think hard about the relationships between man and nature.

As an art major, as a man who wanted to become an artist, I decided I

needed to say something about the destructive power of nature through

my work."





When asked whether he considers himself a climate activist or an

eco-artist, Huang

said he wasn't looking for a label but that "an artist who has an

awareness and a sense of responsibility about social or environmental

issues takes actions to intervene wake up the world, to act as a

bridge on global issues and offer people a way to see beyond what they

normally see in everyday life. I see my job to remind people that we

are all global citizens who should be aware of and responsible for

current and and future environmental problems."





In Tuvalu, Huang set up one installation art piece on a beach that

consisted of a fuel

truck nozzle tied in a knot. The 4m by 2m artwork also featured an

image of a polar bear relaxing in a hammock, and according to the

artist, was set up to symbolize "the end of the world’s reliance on

oil and a move back toward a life of simplicity."



An earlier project, titled ''The Modern Atlantis Project'', featured

an aquarium installation, already showed his concerns about the excessive use of

fossil fuels.



"The closed aquarium symbolized the Earth, our Earth, from which human

beings in the name of 'civilization' and 'capitalism' consume nature

freely and limitlessly, and as my project showed, the aquarium itself

will gradually be consumed, too," Huang said. "I wanted to present

viewers with the idea that our world is doomed if we go on consuming

limited natural resources as if there was no tomorrow, greedily and

without regard for what life on Earth is all about."





"I'm not a scientist, I'm an artist, so I don’t think I can predict

the future in any real way," he said. "But as an artist who cares

about climate change and its impact, I think we need some new

approaches to wake people up."   MORE & FULL TEXT====   TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- November 1, 2012 webposted on blog for private viewing until publication day:   If Taiwan has a climate activist working in the international arena,

it certainly

is Vincent J.F. Huang, a climate eco-artist with a vision. Now

in his early 40s, the Nantou County native went overseas to study art

in Scotland and received a master's degree from Grays School of Art

there. Now his sights are set on trying to wake up the worldm-- and

Taiwan -- about the possible dangers of unchecked climate change and

global warming.



With these issues in mind, Huang is in Qatar this week for a United

Nations climate conference, where he plans to exhibit some of his work

and make a plea for more attention to be paid to peple of the Pacific

island of Tuvalu. He flew to Tuvalu in September where he exhibited

some of his works on the beach and spoke with government officials

there.



When asked how his work was received there, Huang said in a recent

interview that he felt at home there and back to Taipei impressed by

both the islanders and their government.



"The government and islanders were both very supportive of my two

visits, one in 2010 and my second one last September and they

appreciated the eco-art projects I creared to try to draw more

international attention to the situation Tuvalu is facing in regard to

climate change and rising sea levels," Huang said. "I hope to go back

to Tuvalu one day soon, too. I'll be exhibiting some of my

Tuvalu-related work on the sidelines of the meeting this week in

Doha."



When asked what kind of impact he feels his eco-art has on viewers

worldwide, via newspaper articles and photos distributed worldwide via

blogs and the Internet, Huang said that as an artist, he believes in

the power of art to effect change in attitudes.



"The kind of spectacle art installations I do have a visual impact

that can lead people around the world to not only pay more attention

to the crisis Tuvalu is facing on a daily basis, but also to picture

more vividly the global problems of climate change," he said.



Setting up art installions on remote Pacific island and travelling to

Qatar take time and money, of course. Huang received a travel grant

from Taipei Yuan Shan Rotary Club. (台北圓山扶輪社) to fund his visits to

Tuvalu, he said, and for that he's grateful. The Republic of China's

ambassador in Tuvalu, Larry Tseng (曾瑞利), was also very helpful, Huang

said.



But it's difficult for independent artists like him to get funding in

Taiwan since his climate-related works are not for sale or for art

collectors.



"It's ironic that many corporate enterprises here in Taiwan talk a lot

about eco-friendly beliefs but very few CEOs want to do things like

Britain's Sir Richard Branson," Huang said. "Branson puts his money

where his mouth is, and uses his public relations clout and his money

to sponsor socially-relevant events and eco-art projects."



While Taiwan is not facing the same kind of environmental or climate

crises that Tuvlau does, as an island nation, it still must be on

guard. When asked if Taiwan's

coastline might be threatened if sea

levels rise in the future, with one scientist in Taipei already warning that

parts of Taipei City could be under water by the year 2100, Huang said

he wouldn't be surprised if Taipei was flooded by sea level rises in

the next 100 years, noting: "It used to be a lake some 500 years ago."





"Most people in Taiwan today don't believe that what is happening to

Tuvalu could ever happen to this island nation," he said. "As an

artist, I'm surprised that people here still don't get it and that is

a main reason I am doing my art projects. I want to wake people up in

Taiwan, too. We are very much part of the ocean world, too."



When asked how he goes about the time-consuming and arduous work of

contacting government officials in a small country like Tuvalu, Huang

said he relied on patience and help from the Taiwanese embassy there

in conducting what he calls "art diplomacy."



"My 2010 eco-art project in Tuvalu helped connect me with governmental

ministers there, and those connections enabled me to go there again

this fall," he said. "It took me about 10 months of communicating back

and forth via email with Tuvaluan officials and our Taiwanese embassy.

Unfortunately, I don’t always succeed with art diplomacy like this, as

the government of China tries to interfere."



Huang was born in 1971 in the small town of Shuili (水里) in Nantou

County (南投). When a reporter asked what led him to pursue the winding

path of an artist, Huang said that what really got him going as a

young man was the killer earthquake of September 21, 1991, noting:

"The 921 quake destroyed a lot of buidlings and homes in Nantou and

other counties -- and my home, too, was destroyed. The earthquake made

me start to think hard about the relationships between man and nature.

As an art major, as a man who wanted to become an artist, I decided I

needed to say something about the destructive power of nature through

my work."





When asked whether he considers himself a climate activist or an

eco-artist, Huang

said he wasn't looking for a label but that "an artist who has an

awareness and a sense of responsibility about social or environmental

issues takes actions to intervene wake up the world, to act as a

bridge on global issues and offer people a way to see beyond what they

normally see in everyday life. I see my job to remind people taht we

are all global citizens who should be aware of and responsible for

current and and future environmental problems."





In Tuvalu, Huang set up one installation art piece on a beach that

consisted of a fuel

truck nozzle tied in a knot. The 4m by 2m artwork also featured an

image of a polar bear relaxing in a hammock, and according to the

artist, was set up to symbolize "the end of the world’s reliance on

oil and a move back toward a life of simplicity."



An earlier project, titled ''The Modern Atlantis Project'', featured

an aquarium installation, already showed his concerns about the use of

fossil fuel.



"The closed aquarium symbolized the Earth, our Earth, from which human

beings in the name of 'civilization' and 'capitalism' consume nature

freely and limitlessly, and as my project showed, the aquarium itself

will gradually be consumed, too," Huang said. "I wanted to present

viewers with the idea that our world is doomed if we go on consuming

limited natural resources as if there was no tomorrow, greedily and

without regard for what life on Earth is all about."





Another art piece that Huang designed features images of polar bears

squeezed into oil drums, a concept that he says was inspired by oil

giant Royal Dutch Shell’s plan to drill for oil in the Arctic regions.

When asked if he think Shell is listening to him or even aware of his

artwork,, Huang replied: "No single individual can fight against a

huge company like Shell, but at the same time I have tried to connect

with NGOs who also care about these issues and with artists with the

same concerns. Hopefully, together, we can make it to Kyoto where the

Kyoto protocol was signed."



Huang's view of the future? He's worried, he said, but he cannot

predict exactly what will happen or when.



"I'm not a scientist, I'm an artist, so I don’t think I can predict

the future in any real way," he said. "But as an artist who cares

about climate change and its impact, I don't think that statistics or

research papers and scientific reports -- even by climate activists or

top climate scientists -- can catch public attention or concern in a

meaningful way. We need some new approaches to wake people up. News

reports, visual images on television and blogs about the earthquale

amd tsunami Japan and Superstorm Sandy recently in Manhattan and New

Jersey showed just how unpredictable Nature can be. We need to be on

alert. Most people think these things can never happen to them in

their safe homes in the modern world. But natural disasters can up

close and real. For people living in Arctic regions and in a remote

island nation like Tuvalu, future disasters could be real. I feel we

all need to face these issues no matter where we live on this planet

now."





During his trip to Tuvalu in 2010, Huang waded out to a reef

where you erected a small sculpture of an ugly and sad-looking mermaid

made of dried coconut shells and tiny pieces of palm

trees. The images caught the media's attention in Taiwan and in Tuvalu, and

government officials there invited him to visit the island again and

also asked him to come along as a delegate to the Qatar meetings going

on now.



"I'm looking forward to meeting climate activists from around the

world on this new trip," Huang said. "I hope to get some good feedback

from fellow artists and acitivsts this month on my earlier Tuvlau

projects. We shall see."





Acitivists and scientists keep putting hope in new climate confernces,

and while some progress has been made, there is still a long way to go

to fully protecting the Earth -- and humankind -- from climate-related

disasters in the future.



Huang has strong feelings about this and says that ''capitalism is the

key reason [for the lack of progress at climate conferences]''.



"Sadly, the leaders of both developing countries and wealthy nations

care only about their own economic situations, and they selfishly

refuse to do much or anything to solve our climate or environmental

issues worldwide," Huang says.



But the Taiwanese eco-artist charges on, and remains optimistic.

He has been selected by an international group hoping to protect the

polar regions to take part in a three-week visit to the Arctic next

September where he will present a new art piece and do some

media-related outreach upon his return to Taiwan.



There's also hope at the Taipei Yuan Shan Rotary Club, Huang said,

noting that a past president of Taipei Rotary, Gary Huang, has been

selected to be global president for Rotary International in for

2014-2015



"I hope to discuss some eco-art events or ideas of mine with Mr. Huang

when he takes the helm of Rotary International for two years, not only

for Tuvalu, but for Taiwan as well, Huang said. "I hope Taiwan can

take a more active part in global efforts on climate issues in the

future, and help to put Taiwan on the world map in a new way, too."