East and West, modernity and tradition, self and other - such pairs of seemingly matching opposites are not Huang Yongping's cup of tea.
'Europe is a rather tradition-minded place, isn't it?' says the Paris-based artist, as he takes another sip of hot water in the kitchen - or the Laboratory, as the sign on the door would have it - of the Asia Art Archive (AAA) in Hong Kong. 'And when people are travelling to China, they want to see tradition. But they don't find any.'
Instead, the country is like the art world created by Huang - full of the unpredictable.
The 54-year-old was recently in town to give a talk at the AAA before heading to Beijing, where the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Dashanzi, the capital's art district, is showing a retrospective of his work which runs until June 22.
As the scale of the exhibition curated by Walker Art Centre in the US suggests, Huang is considered one of the most significant contemporary artists, Chinese or otherwise, for his highly cerebral and heavily referenced works.
Titled The House of Oracles, the show started in Minneapolis and moved to Massachusetts and Vancouver before going to Beijing. Featuring works from the late 1980s to the present, the retrospective has a lot of ground to cover, from arcanely philosophical installations and politically charged art to, well, oracles. 'Making art and casting oracles is not quite the same. But the two are very close to one another,' says Huang. 'It's essential for both that you get your self, your ego, out of the way.'