Young artist challenges the idea of metal

The jury for the "Hand of Wisdom" program highlighted this conceptual openness. Su Dan, artistic director of the program and deputy director of the China National Arts and Crafts Museum in Beijing, praised Huangfu's interdisciplinary approach.

"She is a young metalwork designer who actively explores material combinations," he says."Resin, wood, precious metals, gemstones, enamel — she reconstructs these materials into new systems. Her work shows a rational aesthetic built on rhythm, structure, and the interplay of points and lines."

Now in its sixth edition, the "Hand of Wisdom" program focuses on the theme "Craft 1+", emphasizing the integration of traditional crafts with multiple materials and contemporary methodologies.

Since its launch in 2019 by Lei Geye, founder of the Golden Phoenix Science and Art Fund, and Christine Cayol, founder of Yishu 8, the initiative has supported young Chinese artisans through residencies in France, fostering sustained dialogue between Chinese and French craft traditions. With the participation of Hennessy and the Western Returned Scholars Foundation, it has since developed into a key two-way platform for Sino-French cultural and artistic exchange.

According to Su, this year's theme marks a turning point. "We see it as a new starting point," he says. "One core craft combined with additional materials and techniques opens up broader possibilities for innovation."

For Huangfu, this hybrid approach is already a natural condition of creation.

Although trained in metal art, she routinely works across resin, wood, enamel, and glass-casting. She is also exploring digital tools, including AI-assisted modeling, reflecting a generation of artists shaped by both tradition and technological fluency.

For Huangfu, being selected for the award is both recognition and departure.

"China and France both have deep artistic traditions," she says. "I hope to step outside my familiar perspective during this residency and understand my work more clearly through the contrast between different histories, cultures and ways of creating."

She will travel to Paris this autumn for a two-month residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts. "I will carry curiosity and humility," she says. "And I hope to respond to this opportunity with sincerity."

In her hands, metal is no longer fixed as heavy or cold. It becomes filament, air and structure — capable of holding both rigor and fragility, and of tracing a new vocabulary for contemporary crafts.