Huang Ziyue Explores Digital Selfhood and LGBTQ Identity in East Asia

Huang Ziyue is a contemporary artist whose practice examines the unstable boundaries between selfhood and the digital world, critiquing internet politics and capitalist colonization of imagination. Her work, grounded in media research, is absurdist and playful. She explores her own life experiences, including her lesbian identity, maternal attachment, and the Oedipal complex, focusing on LGBTQ trauma in East Asia and mother-daughter dynamics. In her sound installation 'I wanna mama,' microphones hidden in a gallery played people calling out 'I want my Mom'; women often noticed and reacted emotionally, while men reported hearing nothing, highlighting selective inaudibility of maternal burdens. Her video installation 'Giraffe Neck Circling the Earth Three Times' (2025-2026) features a figure in a giraffe costume in absurd locations like a tree and paddleboarding on the ocean. 'Obedient Puppy & Beautiful Dolls' (2022) suspends lost dolls and teddies braided into twine, inspired by the loss of childhood comfort objects. Ziyue has exhibited in Austria, China, the UK, and the USA. Her work captures a generational shift among creatives who grew up with social internet and now grapple with its consequences, exploring identity as an online phenomenon with humor and gravity.