NOW: A Dialogue on Female Chinese Contemporary Artists

2017-2018

HOME (Manchester), Centre of Chinese Contemporary Art (Manchester), MIMA: Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Nottingham Contemporary, Turner Contemporary (Margate), Tate Research Centre: Asia (London).

Curator | moving image programme

Supported by The British Council, China National Art Fund and CAFA: Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.

NOW was a collaborative programme aimed at reinvigorating discussion around the role of female contemporary artists in the art ecology of present-day China. I was fortunate to be invited on behalf of The British Council, China National Art Fund and Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, to attend a research trip to Beijing to visit and speak with female artists in studio settings with fellow visiting curators from cultural institutions across the UK.

Following conversations with artists and an extended period of collaboration between partners, a series of exhibitions, commissions and events explored how the diversity of female artistic practice transcends notions of gender difference to offer hybrid perspectives. The transformative impacts of societal change have opened new, transcultural, possibilities for female artists working today.

NOW launched in February 2018 with a UK programme that included public exhibitions at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (Manchester), Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Nottingham Contemporary and Turner Contemporary (Margate). Running alongside, I curated a two-part artist film series on behalf of HOME (Manchester) which toured partners and wider UK venues. The season culminated in a symposium hosted by Tate Research Centre: Asia (London).

Striking, beguiling, sometimes disturbing yet always rewarding, the film selection provided evidence that cultural difference is often much less than we might presume. The two programmes address notions of modernity, tradition and technique; incorporating performance, pen and ink, stop-motion animation, moving portrait and photographic techniques, choreography, new media art and experimental digital SFX, documentary and archive footage.

Artists: Peng Yun, Miao Ying, Ma Qiusha, Hu Xiaoyuan, Chi Jang Yin, Yao Qingmei, Wang NewOne (Volume 1); Guan Xiao, Liu Shiyuan with Kristian Mondrup Nielsen, Hao Jingban, Wang Xin, Geng Xue, Liang Yue, Liu Yi (Volume 2).

Main image: Peng Yun, ‘Miss Melissa and Mr Fish at 2.31pm’, 2013, film still. Image courtesy the artist.