NEWS
Otherworld Communication is a fictitious telecommunication company specialised in contacting the deceased. Created by the artist Prune Phi, it is operated through installations and performances, activated in the form of private consultations.
Part of the French-Vietnamese diaspora, Phi was inspired by the tradition of burning joss paper for the dead, a custom passed down to her from her grandfather. This ritual involves the burning of funerary paper bank notes to send funds to the deceased in the afterlife. This practice has evolved with time and along with bank notes, the living are now offering miniature paper replicas of clothes, luxury items, and even smartphones. The introduction of new technologies into this ancestral rite prompted the artist to explore the role that these elements can play in our cultural knowledge.
Phi activates an immersive two-story installation at galerie 15 Beautreillis, where metallic sculptures of hers will be presented alongisde the performance for the first time.
To mark her upcoming solo exhibition ‘Otherworld Communication’ at 15 Beautreillis, I speak with Prune Phi about her practice and the influences that fuel it, her relationship with materiality, and the underlying fragmentation that permeates her work. This exhibition will run from 9 October to 15 November, 2025, and the performance will be presented for the first time alongside a series of metal sculptures by the artist.
6414.36 Nautical Miles
Curatorial residency and research project
08/2025
6414.36 nautical miles begins with a friendship between two curators across distance. First held in the form of calls between Cape Town and Hong Kong, the project unfolds as a Course of Enquiry shaped by coordinates that are both intimate and socio-historical.
This line between these two cities draws attention to their shared inheritances of imperialism, asking what persists in the ecological, cultural and economic. It is less an attempt at an answer than a mode of sensing: how the urban and natural environment carries traces of the past while conditioning the present, and setting the terms for what is yet to come.
As Lemeeze Davids (Cape Town) and Amandine Vabre Chau (Hong Kong) work together, their research dialogue turns towards form. 6414.36 nautical miles becomes an articulation of a curatorial process, understanding how ideas take shape across time zones, and how research can be held in correspondence. The expression remains deliberately indeterminate, attending to the unfolding of questions as much as to their possible futures. Gradually extending into forms of writing, shared discussion and presentation, each iteration adds to an ongoing process of curatorial exchange.
Magma Poetry Competition 2024/2025
Selected as commended poet
03/2025
Magma Poetry is a UK-based poetry magazine whose editorial board varies from issue to issue. Their aim is to promote the very best in contemporary poetry, writing hat’s alert to the world we live in, that’s honest and above all, unexpected.
It is my honour to announce that my poem was selected as part of the commended poems in the 2024/25 Magma Poetry competition, Judge’s prize category.
Yrellag Gallery
Appointed Gallery Executive
02/2025
I am pleased to announce I have started a new position as Gallery Executive for Yrellag Gallery.
Ripple Effects :
Colours of Humanity Arts Prize
Art Prize - Group Exhibition
Curatorial Team
Hosted by Goethe Institut Hong Kong
14/11/24 - 08/01/25
Colours of Humanity Arts Prize is an annual celebration of diversity, equity, and inclusion through the power of art. Each year we call upon Hong Kong-based artists to showcase the kaleidoscope of human experiences through their creations, unrestricted by medium. This esteemed prize not only offers recognition but also the opportunity to exhibit at the prestigious Goethe Gallery
Emerging Art Professional 2024
Emerging Art Professional
Selected as part of the 2024 participants.
Organised and hosted by Para Site
23/09/24
Workshops for Emerging Arts Professionals: New Flows is a laboratory for emerging arts professionals to reflect on the arts ecosystem and their role and agency within it. Adopting a circular model of exchange, leading figures in the field will host exchanges and workshops in Para Site’s Learning Space alongside off-site visits, interrogating the ethics of art work, diasporic solidarity, collaborative models, institutional forms, and sustainable futures.
愛⺠邨 (Oi Man Tsuen) is a publication resulting from a need of reconnection during times of drastic change. Visiting the place where her family grew up, the artist stepped into the largest public housing estate in Kowloon for the first time. In a sweltering summer day, she visited the complex alongside her mother who hadn’t returned in decades. She captured these moments of recollection as keepsake, in the hopes of it grounding them to somewhere they can go back to.
Sueño de la Madrugada (A Midnight’s Dream)
Firelei Báez’s first UK solo show
Co-Curator
65–67 Peckham Road, London, SE5 8UH
28/06/24 - 08/09/24
Sueño de la Madrugada (A Midnight’s Dream) is Firelei Báez's first solo exhibition in the UK. Known for her visually striking and exuberant paintings, she also makes drawings, installations, and sculptures.
Through extensive research and critical engagement with archives, Báez delves into the rich and complex legacies of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. By resisting binaries and exploring lesser-known histories, she challenges the distorted narratives of colonial powers. In her multi-layered creations, myths and folklore become tools of cultural and spiritual resistance, enabling Báez to create work that encompasses her experiences and allows viewers to reflect on their own.
Interview with Raisa Kabir: Interdisciplinary Artist and Weaver
Interview
Writer
Available in French on Asian Contemporary Art
20/10/23
Raisa Kabir studies the politics of textile and its geographical implications especially related to borders, migration, labour and the body. With her heavy research-based practice, we had plenty to discuss. We met by zoom on the 17th of October, resulting in a fruitful and fertile conversation.
New Curators: Selected as Curatorial Fellow
Curatorial Fellowship
Curatorial Fellow
01/09/23
New Curators is a new twelve-month curatorial training programme based in London for individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds. It is led by Mark Godfrey and Kerryn Greenberg. Located at the South London Gallery for this first year, the eleven fellows will curate an exhibition for summer 2024 at the Gallery.
Conversation with Lê Thiên-Bảo: Galerie BAQ’s Co-Founder and Director
Interview
Writer
Conducted for Asian Contemporary Art
25/09/23
Opened this year, Galerie BAQ is one of the few galleries in Paris devoted to contemporary art from Southeast Asia and its diaspora, while also collaborating with partners in the region to amplify their voices. Led by Lê Thiên-Bảo and Quinnie Seon Gin Tan, I had the opportunity to speak with Thiên-Bảo about the gallery’s foundation, its curatorial approach, funding and the art market. Their new show ‘Tropical Hallucinations’ is on view until the 28th of October.
Exhibition Review - Para Site’s ‘signals…瞬息’: signals… folds and splits
Review
Writer
31/08/23
Curated by Celia Ho and Para Site’s new director Billy Tang, ‘signals…瞬息’ is a six months long exhibition unfolding in three parts. First ‘storms and patterns‘, then ‘folds and splits‘, ending with ‘here and there‘.
Opened in March, this time-based exhibition embraces its moving curatorial method through an ambitious configuration of its space and a careful selection of artists.
The first iteration of ‘signals’ focused on the organising of space. Its structuring but most specifically its scarcity, echoing the concerns of subdivided housing. ‘Folds and Splits’ delved into transitional, intermediate and ambivalent temporalities. Refusing a linear conception of space and time, the show explored passageways, crossroads and the in-betweenness of various states.
Interview with Yin Ker - Art Historian and Adjunct Curator at Centre Pompidou
Interview
Writer
Conducted for Asian Contemporary Art
06/07/23
In 2021, Yin Ker co-curated Bagyi Aung Soe’s solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Art historian and Adjunct curator for Southeast Asia at the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Yin Ker has written substantially on this multifaceted artist from Myanmar. ACA project thought it important to discuss this major figure in a broader context: considering his thinking, beliefs and philosophy. This might offer a glimpse of the artist’s significance to Burmese culture and to the ways we currently interpret contemporary art. Exploring his practice through a theoretical, curatorial and relational lens, this conversation hopefully testifies to the importance of pushing artistic boundaries.
Known as Tsang Tsou-Choi this Hong Kong figure was, and still is, conflicting for many people. Born in 1921, he was a garbage collector turned artist against his will, before becoming a national symbol of resistance. Currently exhibited at the M+ museum in Hong Kong, he earned his title by baptising himself the rightful king of the Hong Kong Kowloon peninsula. Most agreed on him having mental health issues, a few others believed him lucid enough and merely highly inventive.
The story goes: Tsang was to be monarch of this land as one of his ancestors received it as a gift from a Chinese Emperor. At first referring to the peninsula only, soon the entirety of Hong Kong was supposedly under his rule.
For a more inclusive art school, it is necessary to provide the essential tools for the next generation of artists, researchers, directors and teaching staff. What then are the collective solutions we can implement within art schools to establish or further a more inclusive pedagogy ?
To address these issues, we need to have all parties present, as representatives, in the discussion. Therefore we have invited art school director Stéphane Sauzedde, student and artist Alice Dubon, professor Sophie Orlando, and storyteller, curator and film producer Olivier Marboeuf. The importance of this exchange also lies in the need to have a heterogeneous group, so that everyone can contribute according to their own point of view and experience. The aim is to lead positive and concrete actions to improve the system in which we are all involved.
This roundtable is co-organised by Assia Cuche Barkat and myself, as part of the exhibition Sur Le Feu, co-curated by Assia, at the National School of Arts of Paris.
Between Trenches
A group exhibition
Curator
OPENing Gallery, Koppel Project,
11 Angel Ct, London, EC2R 7HB
26/01/23 - 03/02/23
How does each individual delve into their inheritance, selfhood and overall identity? How does each of us see the relevance of such questioning? In what way can we cross-examine these structures and create new pathways of understanding?
The idea is not to create a set and finished proposition in our thinking. Especially when identity itself can change. As we all have a different way of seeing ourselves and our experiences are diverse, we are looking to catch a glimpse of each person’s uniqueness while finding overlapping and meeting points.
From collectives to poets, musicians to filmmakers, painters to performers, this exhibition presents POC artists examining multiple axis of community, culture, care and identity.
Includes performances, a poetry reading and music along with permanent works.