The Enigma of Arrival
Studio Building, RCA Battersea, London, 2024"Diasporas are always categorised by various forms of absence.” - John Akomfrah
The Enigma of Arrival is a curatorial project consisting of three artist commissions and a workshop. Borrowing its title from V.S. Naipaul’s novel, it delves into the intersections of time, identity, and diaspora, reflecting the enigmatic nature of settling into a new time or place. Challenging linear time, this project explores the fragmented nature of diasporic experience, where memory, nostalgia, and rebirth intertwine in a haze of past and present.
Featuring commissioned works by Joshua Woolford, Rieko Whitfield, and Duong Thuy Nguyen, a synergistic blend of audio-visual, sculptural, and collaborative media is presented. Woolford’s peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must narrates a personal perspective within an unfamiliar landscape. Questions of the untold are manifested through a communication between Woolford’s dual-screen display and Whitfield’s Diasporing Terrains – an audio-visual installation resulting from an intimate workshop, redefining the concept of diaspora. Meditating on ideas of memory, belonging, and adaptation, this is framed by Nguyen’s We, Now, Here, There, Together, a sculptural display exploring diasporic communities and their ancestral ties.
We invite visitors to engage with the dynamic and multifaceted nature of diasporic existence.
Mark your arrival, feel the absence.
Artists: Duong Thuy Nguyen, Joshua Woolford, Rieko Whitfield
Curators: Ahwa Habeeb, Clara Lai, David Tomlinson, Hannah Dowling, Qinle Jin, Sylvia Tan, Yu Ying Chan
Photographer & Videographer: Wenxuan Wang
MA Curating Contemporary Art, School of Arts and Humanities, Royal College of Art
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Fragile: Please Handle with Care
Bridge Studio, 3rd Floor, Woo Building, RCA Battersea, London, 2024Fragile visualizes the lack of stability and constant displacement caused by the ongoing housing crisis in London.
Currently, we’re all being affected by a variety of issues affecting housing in London. Whether that’s poor condition, rising rent costs, lack of renters’ rights, or the increased gentrification of areas, we’ve become to feel a part of. This exhibition displays a body of work looking at our own experiences of living in London. We don’t have all the solutions but we can document, create work, and explore these problems through our own lens.
Belong and Belongings
Eaton HK, Hong Kong, 2023"Belong and Belongings" brings together groups of artworks to present the long haul of searching "who I am", revealing the possibilities of multiple identities in between society and individual, pieces and completion, break and rebuild. The exhibition approches idendity as a matter of becoming that undergoes constant transformation, and as a continuous play of history, culture, and power. It involves four parts of identity formations — family, nationality, gender, and social class — to present the state of self-finding as a lifelong wandering journey.
"Belong and Belongings" is co-curated by students from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, interpretating the hotel Eaton HK, an alternative exhibition space, as a stop during a journey that allows travelers to head to their next station, but never a destination. Gathering the imagination towards "identity" by the group of artists and the curatorial team, the exhibition integrates videos, installations, artifacts, and other artworks in Eaton HK's food hall, corridors, and lounge. Displaying art and cultural artifacts in unconventional locations, the exhibition creates an immersive and engaging viewing experience, challenges traditional interpretations, and generates new meanings for the pieces.
Whether you are here for a break from the hustle and bustle of the city, or you fly over thousands of miles to stop over, you can still find your belongings.
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