A World Created, But Yet in the Shadow — Liang-Hsin Huang in Conversation

LETHE

Animation · Illustration · Antakly Projects · Taiwan

Liang-Hsin Huang

Taichung, Taiwan · RCA London · Animator · Director · Illustrator

Taiwanese visual artist exploring poetry, rhythm and place in 2D animation. Her films begin in shadow — sound first, then image — a world created before it is revealed.

A Girl Who's Afraid of Touching People 馬馬虎虎 Mama Huhu Lethe — in progress

Animation RCA London Poetry · Narrative Taiwan

"It's like a world is created but yet in the shadow — and my only job left is to reveal."

the artist

Background

Tell us about yourself.

After two years at the Royal College of Art in London, Liang-Hsin Huang returned to Taichung as a freelance animator, director and illustrator. Her work explores poetry, rhythm and place in 2D animation — music videos, films for books and poems, and deeply personal shorts. She is currently working on Lethe, an animated short about memories and loss.

Selected works

A Girl Who's Afraid of Touching People Personal film

馬馬虎虎 Mama Huhu — Lucky Old Sun Music video

When the Silence Comes Short film

Ye You Short film

Lethe — memories and loss In progress

inspirations · literary sources

Inspirations

Your greatest inspirations or influences?

"I love poetry and short stories and I find that there is a strong relationship between the two and animation. They all convey abundant and fluid feelings in a rather short form. I explore a lot in poetic narration. Each of my films is often influenced by a literary piece."

Film — literary source

When the Silence Comes Elegiac Calculation · Wisława Szymborska

Ye You River of Fireflies · Teru Miyamoto

the process

Sound before image

"I always start with storyboarding and sound editing. Building up a soundscape first allows me to be freer on developing the visual and gives me more ideas and information on the piece I want to create."

"It's like a world is created but yet in the shadow — and my only job left is to reveal."

"I could slow down, think deeper and organise my messy thoughts. But since the pandemic, I feel a lack of new stimulation and real experiences. It is time to go out again and find some new ideas."

Icons · Wellbeing

Who is your icon of our time, and what does wellbeing mean to you?

"I don't have a specific person in mind but I would say — women! We should support each other and cherish our talents more."

"Stay with the people I like and be able to travel anywhere I want. During the pandemic it was hard to meet people in person, so I reminded myself not to forget to keep in contact with friends and family."

You will also love

From the Antakly Projects archive

Music · Composition · Paris

Dom La Nena — Cellist and Composer

Brazilian-French cellist whose music carries the same poetic compression as Liang-Hsin's animation — abundant feeling in a short form.

Read on Antakly Projects ↗ Photography · Conceptual · Prague

Alena Kotzmannová — Of What Is the Horizon a Boundary?

Conceptual photographer working with time, perception and the limit of what can be seen — in the same meditative register.

Read on Antakly Projects ↗ Art · Memory · Russia

Danila Tkachenko — Restricted Areas

Photographer whose work, like Lethe, is about what disappears and what the landscape holds in its silence long after the people have gone.

Read on Antakly Projects ↗

About Antakly Projects

Antakly Projects — originally Ninu Nina — has been in conversation with artists, animators, photographers and creatives from across the world since 2003. Liang-Hsin Huang's poetic, literary practice is exactly the kind of voice this archive was built to hold.

Explore her work at lianghsinhuang.com and follow at @lianghsin523

Explore the full archive →

And for the personal rants, opinions you didn't ask for, and the occasional existential spiral: follow me on Substack.

A world created, but yet in the shadow. ✦