Hybrid Landscape, an exhibit of photographs by Ting Huang that feature conflicting cultural elements, will be on display March 4 through April 10 at the Southern Light Gallery on Amarillo College’s Washington Street Campus.
Huang is an associate professor of photography at Tarrant County College in Hurst. She was born in Taiwan and raised in Woodland Hills, Calif. She says Hybrid Landscape represents her observations of our blended environment.
“This body of work is an observation of our daily hybrid landscape,” Huang said. “I search for images that have conflicting elements in the same frame, yet are playful and contemplative.”
Huang conceived Hybrid Landscape following the death of her grandfather in 2012 in Taiwan, an event that prompted a peculiar request from her family: They had a local photography shop produce a larger-than-life cardboard cutout of the deceased, dressed in a western suit, to display at the funeral.
“They cut my grandfather’s head from one photograph and pasted it onto another photograph of him wearing a western style suit, Haung said. “The idea was to present him as a modern, westernized man, who chose to be buried in traditional Chinese outfit.”
After the funeral, Huang’s mother brought the cutout home and placed it next to the television.
“I made a photograph of it,” Huang said. “The strange visual told not about Taiwanese culture, not about Western culture, but a new blended culture in which we casually live in.”
Huang’s body of work developed from there. The photographer completed a bachelor’s degree in music composition at the University of Texas—Arlington, and a master’s degree in photography in 2014 at the San Francisco Art Institute.
AC’s Southern Light Gallery is located on the first floor of the Ware Student Commons. The display is free and open to the public.
For more information about the Huang exhibit or the Southern Light Gallery, please contact René West, assistant professor of photography and gallery curator, at rwest@actx.edu or 806-345-5654.
-Amarillo College
