Experiments in Care & Collective Disobedience: book launch with Asia-Art-Activism
Saturday 18 March
4 - 6pm
Free & open to all
Join us in celebration of the new essay collection Experiments in Care and Collective Disobedience. For the occasion, we are offering a workshop (free!) centring East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) experiences in the early afternoon as well as a roundtable and book launch with drinks and ESEA snacks.
Edited Dr Joanna Wolfarth and Annie Jael Kwan of Asia-Art-Activism, the publication contains writing by leading academics, artists, curators and researchers who address urgent questions on the following: the complexities of UK Black/Asian race relations and migrations in parallel with global Black/Asia political entanglements and tensions; and on the rise of anti-Asian/migrant sentiment in the UK in relation to the ‘hostile environment’ and the weaponisation of the Covid-19 pandemic. Across 18 discursive and creative pieces, the contributing writers also explore where Asia is situated within institutional narratives of British art; the nature of transnational solidarity'; and how ‘diaspora’ can work as a lens to inform and inflect cultural activities.
The roundtable will take place promptly 4 - 4:30pm and features Bloc Projects’ curator Sunshine Wong and AAA’s Annie Jael Kwan and Yarli Allison.
Annie Jael Kwan is an independent curator and researcher based in London and working between the UK, Europe and Asia. She leads Asia-Art-Activism (AAA) an interdisciplinary and intergenerational network of artists, curators and academics investigating ‘Asia’, ‘art’ and ‘activism’ in the UK, which was in residence at Raven Row from 2018 - 2021. She has led AAA’s extensive public programme of sharing sessions, mini residencies, archive research workshops, screenings, and other live events including: Oceans*A* Part, SEA Currents, AAA Radio (with Cuong Pham); curated Being Present, a live art programme with AAA artists in response to the exhibition, Speech Acts: Reflection-Imagination-Repetition at the Manchester Art Gallery; and co-curated AAA’s 2020 digital programme, Till We Meet Again IRL with Arianna Mercado, Cuong Pham and Howl Yuan). Annie currently teaches ‘Producing the Body: Place, Politics & Practice’ at Central St Martins, University of the Arts, London, and lectures on ‘Writing and Curating’ at KASK, School of Art, in Gent, Belgium. She is the founding council member of Asia Forum that unfolded across digital gatherings in 2021 and an inaugural programme in Venice at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in 2022.
Yarli Allison (she/they) - a Canadian-born, Hong Kongese art-worker based in the UK/Paris with an interdisciplinary approach that traverses sculpture, installation, CGI (VR/AR/3D modeling/game), moving-images, drawings, poetry, tattooing, and performances. Current themes include digital humanities, border systems and datafication, along with skinships and affect. Yarli’s recent works (2021-22) were exhibited at Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong), LINZ FMR (Austria), FACT (Liverpool), Barbican Centre (London), Institute of Contemporary Arts: ICA (London), V&A Museum (London).
Supported by the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield and Bloc Projects.