Pipa (four-stringed Chinese lute), by Huang. SUN RUISHENG/CHINA DAILY
Huang only began experimenting with metal art in 2002, after he contracted severe acute respiratory syndrome while studying at the Central Academy of Fine Arts and was quarantined in Songzhuang, an art community in Beijing's eastern suburbs.
Idling around the village one day, he met a car mechanic named Li Ying who wanted to replace his broken tea table. Huang decided to kill some time by designing a metal tea table for Li.
"Li had the welding skills, I had the creative ideas, so we decided to cooperate and make furniture and other articles with metal waste," he recalled.
Their cooperation proved successful, with a number of buyers searching out the pair's workshop. Not long after, Huang had learned how to weld on his own and began work on an independent creation - an iron water melon made from metal nuts.
With an "out-of-control enthusiasm and inspiration for creation with metal waste", Huang said he made almost 100 sculptures while based in Beijing between 2002 and 2013, though he didn't stay in the capital the entire time. Each piece was given its own name, from Prince on Ice to Peacock Princess and Charge Knight.
Unfortunately, Huang was forced to sell almost all of his works for comparatively low prices as he found himself in financial difficulties.
