NEWS
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
Interviewer
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 is a new twelve-month curatorial training programme based in London for individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds. It is led by Mark Godfrey, Rudi Minto de Wijs 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.
I am honored and grateful to be part of the 2023 cohort !
New Curators: Selected as Curatorial Fellow
Curatorial Fellow
Curatorial Fellowship
01/09/23
Conversation with Lê Thiên-Bảo: Galerie BAQ’s Co-Founder and Director
Interview
Interviewer
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.
Asia-Art-Actvism: Experiments in Care and Collective Disobedience
Presenting AAA’s new publication
Writer
31/08/23
Asia-Art-Activism (AAA) was launched as an international and intergenerational network of artists, curators, and academics investigating the notions of “Asia”, “art” and “activism” in 2018. Through a diverse program of events, residencies, exhibitions, publications and gatherings, the network sought to contribute to and deepen conversations around “Asia”, its understanding, its diasporas and communities in the UK, as well as abroad.
Asia-Art-Activism: Experiments in Care and Collective Disobedience, published in 2022, is comprised of written contributions from AAA associates along with invited academics, artists and activists. Its conception came amidst rising political turmoil. In a post-Brexit context, following Donald Trump’s presidency in the US and the murder of George Floyd, along with anti-government protests in Hong Kong and deep-rooted socio-political tensions in Southeast-Asia; this publication probs into our uncertain times with their underlying concerns, while continuing AAA’s practice of examining urgent questions of activism, art, collectivism, solidarity and care.
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
Interviewer
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.
FFLINTA*
Poem Contribution
Contributor
19/04/23
FFLINTA* is a fanzine building solidarity between FLINTA* (women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans, agender, +) in the artistic and academic world, extending into the personal and intimate. The publication is part of artist Juliette Barthe’s proposition for “L’Avancée” : a collaborative programme between the Fondation d’entreprise Pernod Ricard (Pernod Ricard Foundation) and l’École des Beaux-Arts Paris (Paris National School of Arts) dedicated to emerging artists.
I am delighted to have had the chance to contribute to this first edition.
Asia-Art-Activism
Added into AAA’s Directory
01/03/23
Asia Art Activism is an interdisciplinary and intergenerational network of artists, curators and academics investigating ‘Asia’, ‘art’ and ‘activism’ in the UK and transnationally, launched in 2018 at Raven Row. AAA’s public programme includes sharing sessions, mini residencies, archive research workshops, screenings, and other live events including Oceans*A* Part, SEA Currents, AAA Radio (with Cuong Pham).
Between Trenches
A group exhibition
Lead 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.