ASIA-ART-ACTIVISM: EXPERIMENTS IN CARE AND COLLECTIVE DISOBEDIENCE

Available in French on ACA (Asian Contemporary Art) Project’s website here

Written in July 2023, by Amandine Vabre Chau

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.  

Asia-Art-Activism’s publication, picture taken at “Eternal Night Market” celebrating Eastern Margins’ 5th Birthday Rave. Picture © Amandine Vabre Chau

Interconnection, solidarity and activism:  

We have seen a rise in collective practices throughout the art world. Perhaps in response to COVID-19 or a long-present need for deeper connections within art practices. Asia-Art-Activism spoke to the necessity to build bridges, acknowledge each other on a more fundamental level and cultivate our vulnerability. If we are to construct a better, more nurturing and sustaining art environment as opposed to a hyper-individualised and extractive one, we are to relearn what we value in each other, in artworks, art practices and society at large.  

Author and educator Bell Hooks along with filmmaker and writer Trinh T. Minh-ha, have both written about how love, care and solidarity are revolutionary acts. Challenging us to contest cynicism as an escape, abandonment as acceptance and instead see the transformative creative capacity love and care can bring us.  

Interdisciplinary artist and educator Quek Jia Qi’s essay demonstrates the network’s focus on interrelations, connections and reciprocity. Describing her activity, she mentions Dumplings and Dialogue, her first experimental workshop with AAA which brings the kitchen to the public. The audience was invited to participate in the artist’s food preparation. Questioning our means of making art and producing knowledge, this project was a way to reframe these processes as “a system of relationships [helping] us think through our interdependence: what we can learn from each other as we bring embodied knowledge into the space”. She explains that “food, undeniably a huge part of Asian culture, sat at the intersection of cultural identities, rituals and performances that resonated across the room and brought people from different places into dialogue”. Along with other artist members such as Bettina Fung, Yarli Allison, Carô Gervay and many more, Jia Qi’s work inscribes itself within AAA’s philosophy while expanding our conception of art.   

Asia-Art-Activism has put an emphasis on recent and urgent events. Trusting the need to showcase diverse stories, especially from those made invisible, they offer a platform for voices to be heard. An important component of present day art-making, in the context of amplified political chaos, is to explicit society’s dangerous dynamics. Youngsook Choi’s collective performance titled Unapologetic Coughing, shines light on the frustration, anger and fear felt by the East and South-East Asian (ESEA) community facing rising Anti-Asian hate crimes due to the pandemic. Reading news clips about racially motivated attacks, performers were invited to express their discomfort by coughing and others could join in to show solidarity. Also addressing the rapidly circulating misinformation, the artist and researcher encouraged participants to play “Chinese Whispers”. In this game, one would open a fortune cookie and whisper its message to the person next to them. This action was to be repeated until all members had heard it. The discrepancies between what each person had understood paralleled the flaws of how our current media system fails us and how we in return, fail each other by helping it spread. 

 LUNAR LATE: Year of the Rabbit Celebration event ; With Asia-Art-Activism, Have you eaten yet? and DÉCALÉ at Matchstick Piehouse. Picture © Amandine Vabre Chau.

Reframing Asia within the global discourse:  

“Asia” is as a complex, entangled and contested notion. One of AAA’s objectives has been to open up this discussion, and making it visible by extending it to its diasporas, migrants and local communities. What do these terms mean in relation to one another and how, when and where do they converge? Are they set in stone? Is there a way to enlarge their significance?  

Rarely in the western world has “Asia” been studied as a self-standing entity. It has instead been observed in relation to it. Ming Tiampo, Art History professor and co-director of the Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis at Carleton University, introduces us to the concept of “Global Asias”. Countering a Eurocentric view, this method also aims to bridge the gap between Asian studies, Asian American studies and Asian diasporic studies. Indeed, transnational in scope, it “refuses to locate any site of authentic criticality, preferring the world Asia from multiple vantage points”, leading to an intricate current of “new theoretical positions and solidarities”. Professor Tiampo elaborates a means to connect these seemingly kaleidoscopic constituents together by using the history of tea as a conduit, enabling “an imagination of global encounter prior to European domination” allowing us to reframe Asia within its own context.  

Similarly, on the changing scope of “Asia” and its links within itself and with the world, Senior Lecturers in Sociology Dr.Tamsin Barber and Dr.Diana Yeh explore how the term “Diaspora” can be both progressive and regressive. They write a piece for AAA describing how on one hand it can be a useful tool of resistance to contest racism within colonial legacies, and on the other a potential risk leading to a homogenisation of the diverse Asian community, or even furthering a gap between a transnational and local view. In the context of rising Anti-Asian hate crimes and how it brought together previously disparate groups of action, they suggest we need “a broader, more expansive sense of diaspora”: “a post-diaspora space” which would “enable a coming […] that does not cling to boundaries”.  

Expanding artistic practices: 

Situated within a decolonial and activist lens, AAA put care into its endeavours, analysing them through an intersectional and inclusive perspective. Members being mainly of Asian-descent, several essays address directly or indirectly, the paradox of being a person of colour navigating the art world.   

Artist and writer Sunil Shah asks: “how do we organise ourselves in ways that sustain us both economically and ethically?”. He describes how the Western art system “silently perpetuates all our grievances and sorrows”. Exposed to discrimination and harm, working in this industry as a marginalised person can be laborious. Like Shah, founding member Annie Jael Kwan states how she’s had to “Increasingly […] confront what it means when politically charged practices are appropriated as cultural capital for the art industry, and conversely, the limitations of art as socially engaged practice, a catalyst or tool employed to effect real social change”. Caught between these structures and our own political position, Sunil Shah searches for alternative spaces. Examining social media’s potential and limits as an organising tool, along with the growth of social practices in art, he notes an increase in “dialogue based” and “community focused action[s]”. Seeking more transparent approaches, he observes the possibility of forming “open networks” something comparable to “self-administration, unionising, and discrete project delivery”. Social initiatives that would bring together “artists and communities into direct contact without the additional layers of power.”

Diving deeper into independent curator and researcher Annie Jael Kwan’s contributions, her practice of “curating as organising” has been critical in widening these vast and ongoing dialogues. She notes how a desire for “non-competition [and] mutuality” emerged within the network, leading to “a more experimental participatory mode where food and social relations were prioritised”. This methodology not only broadened what art or art-making meant, but allowed for the deep need to nurture interrelations in our personal lives and artistic work to fully emerge as relevant and essential. Not only was it necessary to maintain those bonds during the tumultuous period of the pandemic, it was vital in order to provide a space, physical or metaphorical, for Panasian artists to dive into diverse matters as safely as possible. Bringing people together, discussing larger issues at hand, offering new visions of socio-political landscapes, these activities have always been part of creative practices. If we are to (or at very least try to) champion transformative social and artistic change, it is crucial for us to abandon our preconceived view of care, solidarity and love as being feeble when they are in fact fuel. We could broaden and reshape not only what art can be but what we as a (dis)functioning society could achieve. By inviting professionals from contrasting yet not dissimilar fields, to form a heterogenous network that dives into art, sociology, curating and solidarity, Asia-Art-Activism offered an alternative and fruitful way to produce, share, care and build. They showed that “food making, eating, talking as methodologies”, “as conversational triggers to share intercultural memories” are simple yet boundary-pushing practices in this industry, something akin to a practice of living.  

Since its publication in late 2022 and the unfolding of various workshops and events as part of the public programme of engaging with the book and its themes, I had the opportunity to catch with Annie. She reflected on how the “question around Asian diaspora relations and positionality in the UK is constantly evolving and changing,” and even if “there could be many more essays, we would still only be telling a partial story” as “it’s an impossible task to be fully comprehensive.” The AAA publication thus stands as a snapshot of a particular time, a particular lens on specific trajectories and questions at that time. Even as global conditions shifted since its launch, AAA itself was continually changing.  While it began with the intention of being a one-year project, its experimental practices shifted towards an emphasis on collaboration, solidarity and care, due to the exacerbated conditions of Covid when people seemed to derive comfort and strength from being connected, which were expressed with the project, “Till We Meet Again IRL”.” More recently, as the art world and its practitioners, including those of AAA, returned to a different pace of working, different pressing priorities and an altered sense of time and space,  “there were lots of questions about where AAA was to go forward, which were made complicated by different demands, capacities, commitments and perspectives.” Hence after the series of book-related events, AAA will take a summer hiatus, have a bit of a rest and think about how the network will evolve.  There are questions to be asked, such as “Whether there is a need for it? Who wants to do something with it? How are we going to do something with it? And these are questions to be considered amidst a changing and more challenging funding landscape. Taking some time out to rest, realign and think about our own personal priorities and capacities in relation to that would be a good move forward.” 

Publication available here: https://asia-art-activism.mailchimpsites.com/

Asia-Art-Activism :  

Asia-Art-Activism began with interpersonal connections and meetings over time, during various artistic projects and initiatives, all converging within the rapidly expanding Asian art scene.  

They started off with a “schedule of familiar art activities including artist talks, performances, panel discussions, workshops, and screenings, activated by its associates and research residents.” These culminated in intense art festivals such as FLOW or SEA Currents, respectively in 2018 and 2019. Followed by more “experimental and socially engaged formats, including dumplings-making, hotpot workshops, and play sessions”.  

Focusing especially on the Southeast Asian art scene, members have in the last 3 years developed a wide range of projects. “Tools to Transform”, for example, an online workbook resource relating to practices of activism in the UK and Europe. They have also worked to preserve the “An Viet Foundation”, the largest known archive of British-Vietnamese history and launched “ESEA Community Hub”, a research project formed in response to COVID-19 and Anti-Asian Racial Violence. This non-exhaustive list provides a glimpse of the continuous effort, dedication, engagement and collective artistic practice Asia-Art-Activism has nurtured. 

You can find more information about Asia-Art-Activism here.

Written in July 2023 by Amandine Vabre Chau for Asian Contemporary Art (ACA Project).