Curatorial Spotlight: Annie Jael Kwan
Moderated by Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol
28 October (Wed)
7.30pm - 9pm
Digital Talk on Zoom : https://zoom.us/j/97119177223
Annie Jael Kwan is an independent curator and researcher based in London. In 2012 she founded the curatorial initiative, Something Human, that presented projects exploring movement across borders in the UK, Europe and Asia. Something Human led the launch of the pioneering Southeast Asia Performance Collection (SAPC) at the Live Art Development Agency in London during its 2017 M.A.P. project, which included a live performance programme in Venice, in partnership with the Diaspora Pavilion and the International Curators Forum. In 2018 she curated UnAuthorised Medium, a group exhibition and public programme exploring artistic practices and archives at Framer Framed, Netherlands; and in 2019 co-curated the Archive-in-residence exhibition and symposium Pathways of Performativity in Contemporary Southeast Asian Art at Haus der Kunst, Munich. She is the recipient of the Diverse Actions Leadership Award in 2019. She is co-founder of Asia-Art-Activism which is in residence at Raven Row until May 2021. As a researcher, she co-edited Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia’s guest issue: Archive, and contributes to various publications including On the future and artist-run spaces, Tate website, Art Review Asia, and Art Asia Pacific.
In this session, independent curator Annie Jael Kwan will reflect on the development of her practice through her recent projects, the research network, Asia-Art-Activism, and its activities. These include Being Present, a live performance programme in response to the exhibition Speech Acts: Reflection-Imagination-Repetition at the Manchester Art Gallery, and its subsequent digital adaptation for the Paul Mellon Centre’s British Art Studies 13; Making Time / Tools to Transform, a project focused on creating resources for Asian and diaspora organising that received the European Cultural Foundation’s Culture of Solidarity grant in 2020; and the forthcoming multidisciplinary digital programme, Till We Meet Again IRL, Best wishes AAA. These projects explore questions of representation, belonging, collectivity, and solidarity for UK-based and transnational Asian artists and diaspora communities.
The session will be moderated by Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol, an art historian, writer, and Curator at the Singapore Art Museum. He previously worked on curatorial and public programmes for Tate Britain, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Jim Thompson Art Center. Kenji’s current research addresses unorthodox constellations of memory, mythology, and history through artistic and activist practice. He most recently organized "Fragments of a Crucifixion" (MCA Chicago, 2019), an exhibition exploring histories of racial violence in the United States from spiritual and queer perspectives. His article on David Medalla is forthcoming later this year in Oxford Art Journal.
This spotlight is a part of The Substation’s Arts Education Programme.