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A Giant Worm-like Sculpture Loops Its Way Through the Worcester Museum

Shih Chieh Huang, “Organic Concept” at the Worcester Art Museum (photograph by Kim Noonan; image © Worcester Art Museum)

For the final iteration of his performance series Organic Concept, artist Shih Chieh Huang filled the Renaissance Court of the Worcester Art Museum with a gigantic worm-like sculpture. The work loops its way around the room’s staircases and columns, pulsing with the pressure of several box fans that keep the structure alive. For the last 15 years he has filled gardens, roadways, and malls with similar pieces, allowing rolled painter’s plastic to flail its way through each space it inhabits.

This particular installation was created for his recent solo show at the museum titled Reusable Universes: Shih Chieh Huang. Similar to the intestine-shaped sculpture, the pieces within his exhibition are made from common materials. Huang transforms ubiquitous objects into novel and complex forms, creating kinetic works that whir, blink, and subtly change colors in the museum’s darkened gallery.

“Sometimes when I look at these pieces,” Huang explained to Artnet about his installation, “I just see trash bags and fans, controlled in a certain way so that they’re moving; it’s very straightforward. But sometimes, I think that’s a cell, heart, a lung, a sea creature. I don’t want to tell the viewer how they should be looking.”

The installation is his most ambitious yet, with over one hundred various components. Formed mostly from plastic, the sculptures are not a comment on sustainable practices, but rather an exploration of the mechanical properties of each of his sourced gadgets. He hopes his low-tech works inspired a curiosity for experimentation in his audience, one akin to tinkering with modes of early technology.

Reusable Universes: Shih Chieh Huang will run through November 12, 2017 at the Worcester Art Museum in Maine. You can hear him speak more about the connections between his mechanical creations and undersea life in this TED talk. (via Hyperallergic)

Shih Chieh Huang, “Organic Concept” at the Worcester Art Museum (photograph by Kim Noonan; image © Worcester Art Museum)

Image © Worcester Art Museum Facebook

Shih Chieh Huang, T-24-L, 2017, 8 x 13 x 9 feet, Mixed media, photo: Megan Paetzhold, Courtesy of the artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York

Shih Chieh Huang, VT-36, 2017, 10 x 10 x 12 feet, mixed media (L), VT-34-BTB (red angel eye), 2017, 12 x 13 x 3 feet, mixed media ® photos: Megan Paetzhold, Courtesy of the artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York

Shih Chieh Huang, Reusable Universes, installation view (image © Worcester Art Museum)

Shih Chieh Huang, Reusable Universes, installation view (image © Worcester Art Museum)

Shih Chieh Huang, Reusable Universes, installation view (image © Worcester Art Museum)

Shih Chieh Huang, “Organic Concept” at the Worcester Art Museum (photograph by Kim Noonan; image © Worcester Art Museum)