We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yuxuan Huang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yuxuan below.

Alright, Yuxuan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is called Lost Stories. It features a collection of furniture and objects that reimagine antique pieces through a deconstructive lens, preserving the stories of people and objects lost in time. By encountering furniture that has outlasted its creators—those who lived with it and left their marks on it—the collection seeks to foster a sense of humanity by uncovering the encapsulated stories and memories of these objects.

Lost Stories deconstructs antique furniture into its basic components, returning it to a raw state and freeing the narratives and puzzles of the past from their preconceived forms. The new materiality includes traces like dirty paint, scratches, glue marks, and dust. By collaging these imprints into a minimalist form and adding illustrative silhouettes of the original objects, the collection continues the reincarnation of both the object and the life stories behind it.

This project is especially meaningful to me because it connects my artwork to my childhood interests and to the world. When the idea for Lost Stories emerged, it reminded me of my earliest dream: to become an archaeologist, before I aspired to be a writer and then an artist. I was fascinated by the fragments of bones and ceramics buried in the earth and enjoyed watching documentaries about how archaeologists trace the stories of forgotten eras through object fragments. While we know the history of prosperous dynasties from a macro perspective, I’m intrigued by the undocumented lives and the everyday experiences of people in those times. I want to see historical buildings as they were when they were just ordinary homes.

Lost Stories is my first attempt to convey these forgotten stories through furniture. These are stories about people, lives, and human experiences—stories not only of the beautiful poetics of the world but also of sorrow, unpredictability, and the poignant moments in between. Since childhood, I’ve harbored a deep empathy for the lives of strangers who pass through my life. I feel grateful for their fleeting presence and recognize how moments of intersection can alter my own path. I wish for something or someone that could remember all the vibrancy that once existed in the world and has since faded away.

Yuxuan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m always motivated by the beauty of everyday, mundane life and how ordinary materials and objects can be elevated through design to bring surprises to people. I have a background in conceptual art and transitioned to furniture making during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a dark time for both me and the world, and I hoped to find some hope and light during this period. Being isolated at home for three months prompted me to rethink how fine art is often disconnected from people’s daily lives and how little it can do for them. Similarly, speculative designs, which project objects and design into a conceptual future, often feel distant from the present moment. I wish to create art that, conceptually and physically, allows people to experience warmth, serendipity, and the poetics of the world without any sense of distance in their everyday lives.

Furniture is the perfect medium for this. I approach furniture with a conceptual art mindset during the brainstorming phase, but I always prioritize functionality and craftsmanship during the design and manufacturing stages to ensure it is suitable for daily use. Materiality is crucial for generating the poetics and narratives that infuse hope, surprise, and a sense of connection into my work. I believe that poetics is closely related to nature because of its beauty, vagueness, constant change, and the atmosphere or aura it creates. In furniture making, the beauty of nature is embedded in the subtlety of materiality—the substances we gather from nature and shape through our human creativity. That’s why I always choose natural and sustainable materials for my work.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is discovering how deeply audiences can connect with your work and your philosophy. There have been several moments during exhibitions where, without any need for explanation or background, visitors have shared how profoundly they were touched by my art. These interactions reaffirm that the essence of what I try to convey resonates on a personal level, often more than I could have ever articulated with words alone.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My creative journey is driven by a mission to translate the world around me into a language I call “design.” This language isn’t for crafting fantasy or romance but for exploring and expressing the life I observe, ponder, and cherish. Whether working in design or fine arts, my goal remains consistent: to convey my thoughts and reflections on the world through a poetic and evocative style.

For me, “poetic” means embracing an imaginative and emotionally resonant way of expression. I seek out the inherent poetics in everyday materials, simple forms, light, and shadows. I view poetics as an integral part of the world itself, and I strive to uncover and articulate these subtle nuances through my work. Nature plays a crucial role in this pursuit, with its beauty, ambiguity, and ever-changing essence deeply influencing my creative process.

In furniture making, for example, I aim to embed the natural beauty of materials into the objects I create. By carefully selecting and manipulating these materials, I strive to reveal their hidden poetics and infuse living spaces with these messages. My mission is to find the right forms and techniques that honor and amplify the inherent beauty and subtlety of nature, transforming them into meaningful, expressive pieces that resonate with people in their everyday environments.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://yuxuan-huang.com
• Instagram: yuxuan_huang__

Image Credits

image of Cabinet I in blue/green background cr to Erik Gould