Yan Huang has travelled the world to create car interiors, now the Anakie resident is driving into Geelong Design Week next month.
The “outsider” hopes to motivate the next generation of Geelong artisans with her 20-year journey in the automotive industry.
“If I can inspire even one that would great,” she said.
“I got to travel around the world and worked with some of the best designers, engineers and automotive sculptors – I even ended up marrying one.”
Yan said she grew up drawing on the walls at home under the care of her grandmother, while both parents worked full-time.
“She really spoiled me with whatever I wanted to do,” she said of her grandmother.
“My grandfather thought it was ridiculous.”
After studying art in China, Yan moved to Australia for further study at RMIT shortly before the Tiananmen Square massacre.
She was one of many Chinese students to receive an Australian residency during the turbulent time. In her last year of study a lecturer recommended she sketch car interiors.
As an “Asian” and a “woman”, Yan said she felt like an “outsider” in the male-dominated Australian automotive industry.
But soon her “very good” sketching skills would see her travel from Melbourne to Detroit, Turin to Shanghai, working for companies from Holden to Buick.
“The most rewarding feeling is to watch the car I’ve sketched driving down the road,” she said.
Now she works for herself, sculpting “stories” in “sinuous” works of metal, stone, wood, glass, polymer and more.
Yan will join dozens of artists, crafters, performers, environmentalists and creatives in the first-ever Geelong Design Week running from March 19-29.
Details: www.geelongcityofdesign.com.au/geelong-design-week.
