Exhibitions / Gallery 1 & 2, 3rd Floor
EN THNomadic
A group exhibition
curated by
Dr. Vennes Cheng
List of artists
Hikaru Fujii (Japan), Jiandyin (Thailand), Law Yuk Mui (Hong Kong), Lin Yichi (Taiwan), Sim Chi Yin (Singapore, New York based), Tsang Kin-Wah (Hong Kong), Tsao Liang-pin (Taiwan), Tintin Wulia (Indonesia, Sweden based)
Nomad refers to individuals who lack a fixed habitation and instead move from place to place. Appropriating the concept of nomadic existence, this exhibition reimagines the fluidity of one's identity and the multitude of homelands, which are fundamental conditions of Asia. The notion and composition of Asia are intertwined with the histories of human displacement. Wars, conflicts, and disputes in the region have compelled people to leave their places of birth and resettle in other countries. Human displacement represents both the past and the ongoing circumstances in Asia.
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Detail from The Suitcase Is A Little Bit Rotten, Harbour, 2022
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Still image from Playing Japanese, 2017
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Nantou Martyrs Shrine, 2018
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(Re)Collection of Togetherness – stage 13, 2007-2024
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Installation view of Transoceanic Practice at VT Artsalon, Taipei, 2021
The selected artworks by participating artists from Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong form a constellation that investigates and highlights the histories of human displacement in Asia, particularly in the eastern and southeastern regions.
On Adaptation, photograph series no.2, 2010
This exhibition also seeks to delineate the connections and relationships between various parts of the region and proposes a plural lens to discern the multiculturalism of Asia, emphasizing that community and identity are social articulations of differences. It ultimately aims to mediate discussions surrounding the current circumstances of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong and to render imaginary one another’s reference points in the region.
Dr. Vennes Cheng
Hong Kong
Scholar and Curator
Dr. Vennes Cheng, Sau Wai is a scholar and curator based in Hong Kong; she is currently Associate Curator of M+ Museum Hong Kong Visual Culture. Her research areas include modern and contemporary art of Hong Kong and China, diaspora studies, artist archive, and historical and mnemonic contingency. Cheng was the research fellow of the joint fellowship of Geothe-institut, documenta institut, and documenta archiv in 2021. In 2018, she was selected as one of the emerging art professionals of Para Site, Hong Kong. Her curatorial projects have been actualised in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany, and Thailand.
Cheng received a Ph.D. of Art History from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2021 and MA in Culture Studies from Goldsmiths, The University of London in 2016. Her monograph on archival art practices and artist archives of contemporary Hong Kong will be published in 2024.
Hikaru Fujii
b.1976 Japan
Artist
Born in 1976 in Tokyo. Lives and works in Tokyo. Fujii Hikaru’s practice is based on the notion that artistic production implies a close relationship with society and history. Mainly in the form of video installation, he creates work that responds to contemporary social issues through detailed research and fieldwork on unique cultures and histories of various countries and regions.
jiandyin
Thailand
Artist
Jiandyin, Pornpilai Meemalai and Jiradej Meemalai, are a collaborative interdisciplinary duo of artists and curators, who currently live and work in Ratchaburi, Thailand. Their work spans various disciplines and mediums, and they actively engage in collaboration and social involvement. Their aim is to create spaces or platforms that allow for the analysis of relationships between individuals and society, within the specific context and history of a place or space. Through their art, they delve into complex and specific issues, particularly those related to political conflicts and their effects on marginalized groups.
In 2011, Jiandyin co-founded non-for-profit Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts and Culture. Baan Noorg’ joined documenta fifteen, 2022, Kassel, Germany, and the Thailand Biennale Chiang Rai, Thailand, 2023.
Law Yuk Mui
b.1982 Hong Kong
Artist
Law Yuk-mui graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Master of Fine Arts. She is the co-founder and deputy director of the artist-run organization Rooftop Institute (2016-2022). Utilizing mediums of performative video and sound installation and adopting the methodology of field study and collecting, she often intervenes in the mundane space and daily life of the city and captures physical traces of history, psychological pathways of human, the marks of time and the political power in relation to geographic space.
Lin Yi-Chi
b.1986 Taiwan
Artist
Born in 1986, Lin Yi-Chi now lives and works in Taipei. Lin received her Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the Taipei National University of the Arts. With educational backgrounds in both contemporary art and film production, her works take the form of video art, experimental cinema, and video installation. In recent years, Lin’s practice has centered on diasporic experiences within Asian geopolitics. Memories and dreams are collected through field investigation, and the dynamic images are transformed into her medium of necromancy. Individual life narratives are re-interpreted and re-enacted into a re-enchantment scenario, which she employs to summon the marginal voices and re-produce bonds among nationalities, histories, and collective memories.
The unique atmosphere her artworks create is experimental and subversive.
Sim Chi Yin
b. 1978 Singapore
Artist
Artist from Singapore whose research-based practice uses artistic and archival interventions to contest and complicate historiographies and colonial narratives. She works using different media, including photography, film, installation, performance and book-making.
She will participate in the 60th Venice Biennale (2024). Her work is in the collections of Harvard Art Museums, The J. Paul Getty Museum, M+ Hong Kong, Singapore Art Museum, and the National Museum Singapore. She was an artist fellow in the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program (2022-3) and is completing a PhD at King’s College London.
Sim is represented by Zilberman Gallery in Berlin and Hanart TZ Gallery in Hong Kong.
Tsang Kin-Wah
b. 1976 Shantou, China
Artist
Tsang Kin-Wah graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Camberwell College of Arts in London. His recent solo exhibitions and projects include: ‘Freezing Water: Between Here and There’ at Hong Kong Museum of Art (2023); ‘Onsite/offsite: Tsang Kin-Wah’ at Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada (2017); NOTHING at M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong (2016); and The Infinite Nothing at the Hong Kong Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2015), among others. He has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including the Istanbul Biennial (2017), Aichi Triennale (2010), Biennale of Sydney (2010), and Biennale de Lyon (2009).
His works can be found in key collections and museums, including M+ Museum of Visual Culture (Hong Kong), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), and MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts (Rome). Tsang represented Hong Kong at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.
Tsao Liang-Pin
Taiwan
Artist
Born and raised in Taiwan, Liang-Pin Tsao is an artist based in Taipei, Taiwan. He holds an MFA degree from the Pratt Institute, and is a recipient of a Fulbright Grant, New York Residency Program, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture Taiwan, and Paris Photography Exchange Program sponsored by the French Office in Taipei, among others. His recent works, “Becoming ‧ Taiwanese,” investigate the Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines in Taiwan and the relational tension between colonial history, self-identity, and value awareness, especially in light of transitional justice and biopolitics.
Liang also devotes himself to public service and open culture. In 2016, he established the Lightbox Photo Library, a non-for-profit organization, which is free and open to all. Employed as a method, Lightbox strives to preserve, disseminate, and advance local photographic perspectives and creative practices through various kinds of public programs and educational projects, aiming to practice the values of intellectual freedom, cultural equity and the co-creation of photographic culture.
Tintin Wulia
b. 1972 Denpasar
Artist
Tintin Wulia is a multidisciplinary artist exhibiting internationally, and a Senior Researcher at HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. She explores the intricate power dynamics of societal and geopolitical borders as interfaces through text, video, sound, painting, drawing, dance, installation, performance, and public intervention, tackling these subjects both pragmatically and conceptually. Since 2000, she has contributed to over 200 international exhibitions and publications, including Istanbul Biennale (2005), Moscow Biennale (2011), Gwangju Biennale (2012), Sharjah Biennale (2013), and Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021. She represented Indonesia with a solo pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.
Tintin is a co-initiator of the transnational research-relay collective 1965 Setiap Hari, amassing personal narratives on the 1965-66 Indonesian mass killings and relaying them through diverse social media platforms. She also leads the research group Thingstigate at the University of Gothenburg, aiming to empirically discover how aesthetic objects in everyday life instigate sociopolitical change.