Who do you think you are? An international interdisciplinary symposium on the boundaries of Asian identities ATM 16 October 2018 10am - 5pm The Whitworth

Produced by Manchester School of Art, Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Manchester Metropolitan University Image: Masumi Saito ‘In Praise of Shadow’ 2016. Taken by Koya Yamashiro Sixteen Days Fifteen Venues

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Asia Triennial Manchester is supported by @triennialmcr #ATM18 Arts Council England and project partners: www.asiatriennialmanchester.com Who do you think you are?

The Whitworth Gallery As one of the many performative 16th October 2018, 10am – 5pm reiterations of this year’s Asia Triennial, the symposium will centre on visual An international interdisciplinary culture that does not only celebrate symposium on the boundaries of Manchester’s diverse communities but Asian identities will interrogate and attempt to respond to the provocation, Who do you think What does it mean to be Asian today? you are? How can we begin to define negotiate, negate or remodel the boundaries Who do you think you are? is a of this vast continent in relation to reframing of the ambiguous and identities and issues of gender, race, impossible demand so often community, ability, borders, conflicts encountered by people of colour in or their intersections? Why are Asian a post-industrial, multi-cultural city narratives often marginalized in in the UK, Where are you [really] discussions on race? To what extent from? The provocation invites artistic, is the migratory experience central to cultural and political responses to Asian identity? What are the myths narratives around Asian identities, surrounding Asian migration and their intersection with present cultural how do they perpetuate pervasive preoccupations on the nature of stereotypes? How far have we moved identity, organised around dialectics of on from colonial terms such as, ‘near’, gender and sexuality; community and ‘middle’ and ‘far’ when we frame Asian migration; technology and humanity. identities in relation to Western geo- The day will conclude with with a ethnography? How are Southeast and performance by artist Venuri Perere. East Asian women and non-binary people represented in conversations about race and feminism?

We have invited a host of international artists, curators and academic scholars to engage with some of the above questions (but not limit their responses to these). Who do you think you are?

The Whitworth Gallery, Grand Hall 13:30 Lunch @ The Whitworth 16th October 2018, 10am – 5pm Cafe

09:30 Coffee and registration 14:30 Tomasz Wendland

10:00 Welcome by Professor 14:50 Valentina Gioia Levy Tim Brennan 15:10 Fon And Fa 10:20 Alnoor Mitha 15:30 Qasim Riza Shaheen 10:40 Dr Emma Roberts 15:50 Venuri Perera 11:00 William Titley 16:10 The symposium 11:20 Coffee Break will conclude with a performance by artist 11:40 Jung Me Chai Venuri Perera

12:00 Professor Rina Arya 17:00 Closing 12:20 Anjum Malik

12:40 Amina Ansari

13:00 Professor Jai (Jagjit) Chuhan Abstracts and Biographies

Professor Tim Brennan in public spaces, cultural change and power, critical notions of identity, transnationalism, Tim Brennan, Professor of Art and Head and pre and postcolonial cosmopolitanism. of Department of Art at Manchester School Key research achievements include the of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University notable impact of new acquired knowledge will give a welcome to the day, and a short in the field, bridging multiple artistic and reflection on Asia Triennial Manchester and cultural strands. Mitha studied fine arts at its theme of ‘who do you think you are’ the University of Wolverhampton under the and...who he thinks he is. distinguished sculptor, Anish Kapoor.

Alnoor Mitha He is an authority in South Asian contemporary art, having founded Shisha From a radical feminist response to (2001-2011) the international agency European exotic fantasies of South Asia, for contemporary South Asian crafts and to a spectacular public procession that visual arts. He has programmed emerging invites us to explore how communities and mid-career international artists in the evolve through shared rituals, ATM18 country including, Rashid Rana, Imran reframes existing narratives around Asian Qureshi, Subodh Gupta, Shilpa Gupta, identities as they intersect with contemporary Shamsia Hassani and many more. He has debates around gender and sexuality, also produced around 15 scholarly books community and migration, technology on contemporary art from Asia. He is a and humanity. Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

Focusing on young and mid-career artists from South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Dr Emma Roberts China, Sri-Lanka and the UK, while Poised Between East and West: fostering international and local curatorial Painters of the Philippines collaborations and new partnerships, ATM18 seeks to questions how Asian This illustrated paper examines the changes identities are constructed and understood in painting practices and subject matter in in an accelerating world of mass migration, the Philippines from the 1820s until the disputed borders and conflicting ideologies. present as Filipino artists questioned ‘who they are’. As a colony of Spain and the USA, Alnoor Mitha is Founding Artistic Director and then a republic, artists had to consider of Asia Triennial Manchester. Born in Uganda, their personal identity and public role as East Africa, he is a researcher, writer, curator artists. From Damian Domingo’s depictions and cultural producer, and is currently a of regional ‘types’, Juan Luna’s immersion in Senior Research Fellow at Manchester School European academic traditions, to Fernando of Arts & Humanities. He is the author of Amorsolo’s sexualisation of female labourers, numerous works exploring international artists can be seen to interrogate their biennials/triennials including exhibitions position as Filipino Asians and as artists. (continues to the following page) Abstracts and Biographies

Dr. Emma Roberts is Programme Leader of Jung Me Chai BA (Hons) History of Art & Museum Studies at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. If You Are Not A Bird Roberts gained a Ph.D. in Art History in 1997 from the University of Liverpool on the topic 1. destroy of the sculptor, Barbara Hepworth and is K ill Mother (KILL patriarchy) author of The Liverpool Academy: A History ‘The best thing, according to Sophocles and Index (1997) and The Public Sculpture in Oedipus at Colonus, would be to not of Cheshire and Merseyside (2012). She was be born. for ten years a Visiting Lecturer at the Victoria Em il M. Cioran, The Trouble with and Albert Museum, London. In her spare Being Born (1973) time, Roberts is a lecturer in History of Art on board cultural cruise liners worldwide. 2. transcendental illusion - W omen refugees from North Korea, William Titley Ryeohaeng, Heung-soon Im It’s an illusive, slippery something. - Ch imeras, Frame, Crucifix, Jimok Choi Me today you tomorrow, a fickle friend. -  Nar cissism as masochism, Instrument I, We, as in me and I as in you. A repetitive yet Hyungkoo Lee slightly out of earshot rhythm of becoming. 3. imagine William Titley is a Senior Lecturer/Course Leader for the MA Fine Art at UCLAN, Preston. What would you do if you were a bird? He is a co-founder and director of ‘In- Situ’, a non-profit arts organisation in East Jung Me Chai is the director of DISKURS Lancashire. He is a PhD candidate at MMU Berlin. From 2011 to 2014 she has worked and adopts artistic research methods by as project manager for the project “Transfer making work in the place where he lives, Korea - NRW “ at the NRW Kultursekretariat which could be considered a form of auto- as well as an assistant curator at the ethnographic artistic research. His research Kunstmuseum Bochum. She has curated analyses social artistic processes from the exhibitions such as No More Daughters perspective of the artist, adding to debates And Heroes, Aram Art Gallery, The Goyang around what social arts practice is, and what Cultural Foundation, Korea // Organ Mix, Total its limits are in its original social context and Museum, and Korea // Kleines Affektchen systems of dissemination. (Part Film, Video, Performance), Museum Bochum. she has been invited as a guest Image below: Still from Ryohaeng by IM Heung-soon curator for 4th Mediations Biennale, Poznan. She has contributed articles to, among others, the well-known art magazines ArtNow, Nobless and Wolgan Misul. Professor Rina Arya It is a freedom and restriction I exploit as an artist, through my poetry, scriptwriting, Who do you think you are? performances, exhibitions. Multiple heritages Identity is a fluid thing. Sometimes the are a treasure toolbox I have been handed variables of one’s identity align, other times, by life. I love playing with it. less so. Being British and South Asian were historically viewed as being incompatible Anjum Malik is an established scriptwriter, because of the radical cultural differences poet, artist and performer, has written several between them. The challenges of each much-acclaimed original scripts for BBC, ITV generation of South Asian migrants are and theatres in UK, and shown word-based different and involve balancing acts between exhibitions in art galleries. Specialising in fact establishing their identity in the diaspora to fiction, she works with true stories of real whilst also pledging allegiance to their people. Previous jobs include police officer, cultural heritage. This paper examines the interpreter, sales person, business owner and impact that Brexit has had on rethinking Kathak dancer. She was born in Saudi Arabia cultural identities within modern day Britain and has lived in Pakistan as well all over and the implications this has on roots and England. Anjum is multi lingual and currently a sense of rootedness. based in Manchester, UK. She is a fellow of the Writing School, Manchester Metropolitan Rina Arya is a Professor at the University University and is represented by David of Huddersfield. She has published widely Higham Associates. on post-war British art and the visual and material culture of religion. Author of Francis Amina Ansari Bacon: Painting in a Godless World (2012) Beyond physical borders: and Abjection and Representation (2014), The Art and Life of Amina Art Ansari, she is currently working on a study of cultural South Asian diaspora artist appropriation in a Hindu context. Amina Ansari will be highlighting her Anjum Malik experience without borders. Visits to different countries, Art and how it made I am always from somewhere else. an impact or affected her. Attitudes need Born in one continent of parents from to change to bring change intentionally for another growing up in yet another, has meant reputable artists to come forward under the that I belong and do not belong wherever banner of art. From all kinds of hardships I am. Where are you from, really? Is a to achievements to more barriers. From question I am asked regularly, no matter socially awkward and ‘different’ young which part of the world I happen to be in, lady, who walks and talks in a strange, my answers come from a multiple choice enthusiastic childlike manner, observes the I have been given. They depend on who I world, questions it and differ from Logics V am that day, how I feel….playful, awkward, emotions. (continues to the following page) difficult, stubborn, friendly, open, closed…. Abstracts and Biographies

The aim to bring about a minor revolution Refuge at 15 Sept - 24 Nov from stereotypes in every day’s environment premieres new paintings by Jai Chuhan. to extremes with communication barriers and Remodel: Painting Studio at HOME 15 - 21 bridging gaps from West to East. Oct presents Jai making paintings in HOME’s main gallery, within her creation of an Amina Ansari (from Pakistan) has a evolving sculptural installation, encouraging background in Fine Arts, Events and as visitors to create artworks, engaging with Director of Communications for a charity, guests including life models, dancers in learning ESOL and IT. She is strongly Bisakha Sarker and Kali Chandrasegaram, committed to diversity and equality international curator Adam Carr and writer combined with an understanding of many Rina Arya. different cultures. Looking to make use of her experience to help others, reflecting Jai (Jagjit) Chuhan is an Indian born British the artist’s mentality from negatives into artist who studied at UCL Slade School of positives. She is very enthusiastic about Fine Art. Her paintings have been exhibited combing Western and Eastern artistic forms internationally including in Italy, Sweden, through her works. The mysteriousness of Belgium, China, Singapore and in the being visible or invisible with all architecture/ UK including at Tate Liverpool; Barbican, pattern traits that the both world offers. She London; Ikon, Birmingham; Arnolfini, studied at Central Saint Martin’s, London Bristol; Watermans Arts Centre, London; College of Printing in London and National Commonwealth Institute, London; Horizon College of Arts in Lahore and has two Gallery (Indian Arts Council in the UK), paintings at Windsor Castle in a collection to London; Liverpool Biennial; Asia Triennial mark Her Majesty the Queen’s Jubilee. Manchester. Her paintings are in collections including Arts Council Collection; University Professor Jai (Jagjit) Chuhan of Liverpool Art Collection; Cartwright Hall, Bradford; Grosvenor Museum, Chester; Refuge at Gallery Oldham and Remodel: Usher Gallery, Lincoln; Tate Archive. She is a Painting Studio at HOME Professor at Liverpool John Moores University.

Jai’s paintings isolate the human form in Image below: Jai Chuhan, Refugee Girls, 2016 room-like spaces, arenas for exploring the body as politicized territory, focused or blurrily glimpsed, in configurations reflecting her interests as a woman and Indian-born British artist living in multicultural cities. The people portrayed are anonymous or known including self-portraiture. Figures often seem confined, suggesting psychological tensions in symbioses of male and female, and ‘unhome’. Fluid layers of colour enhance depiction of themes such as refuge, informed by transcultural aesthetic lineages. Tomasz Wendland Tomasz Wedland studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (History of Art) and Alanus Kunsthochschule Alfer/Bonn in Germany. He received his Ph.D. from Dartington College of Arts (Plymouth University) in Great Britain. He is Professor at the Academy of Arts in Szczecin in Poland and Chairman of Mediations Biennale Foundation’s management board.

Valentina Gioia Levy

The exotic west and the ambiguity in 2015, she was guest curator of the first of the otherness edition of Something Else OFF Biennale Cairo Starting from the dialectical principle (Egypt) and in 2016 she was guest curator of affirming that all things are determined by the XII edition of Dak’Art Biennial (Senegal), their internal oppositions the presentation under the direction of Simon Njami. In 2016, focuses on the concept of otherness as a key she was also co—curator of LAM360, Land to understanding the self and social identity. Art Mongolia Biennial (Ulan Bator, Mongolia) The intervention proposes an overview and co-curator of Mediations Biennial over the ‘exoticization of the west’ from Poznan (Poland). In 2017, she has been a the concept of “occidentalism” to the recent contributor for Arts and Globalization Pavilion works of Asian artists like Eddy Susanto during the 57th Venice Biennial and in 2018 and Kyungah HAM and Italian artist Romina she co-curated with Rikke Jorgensen the De Novellis. program “Art & Connectography”, a collateral event of Manifesta 12 promoted by Arts & Valentina Gioia Levy is an independent Globalization Platform. curator and art writer based in Rome. Since 2010, she collaborated with a number of Since 2015 she also teaches History of museums and art galleries and cultural Contemporary Art and Design at Accademia institutions around the world. In 2014, Italiana, School of Fashion and Design in she coordinated a curatorial program for the Rome. Currently, she is the curator of the National Museum of Oriental Art that aimed collections and exhibitions of Valeria Costa to present key Asian artists and practices. Piccinini Heritage Fund (Rome, IT) and the Since 2014 and 2017 she has been the chief curator of Giudecca Art District Project curator of the visual arts program of the that she co-founded with Pier Paolo Scelsi Festival of Villa Ada in Rome. Between 2014 (Venice, IT). and 2015 she curated two collateral shows of Image above: Still from Two letters and a postscript, Kochi - Muziris Biennial (Fort Kochi, India); 2017 by Qasim Riza Shaheen Abstracts and Biographies

Fon And Fa To be Thai Again Fa and Fon will be presenting on their new on-going project in which they will present the experience of growing up as second generation modernised Thai women, having migrated to England at a young age had caused them to distance themselves from their Thai heritage disabling their ability to communicate in their mother tongue. Exploring the cause, effect and issue of losing one’s identity and the pros and cons of being predominantly exposed to western clothing formation with film production culture from a young age, further discussing and directorial, or a sculptural mass study how conflicting social morals, contrasting alongside performance, all the while, domestic teachings and the split of affection highlighting on current world issues of the for dual nations has shaped a new race of the digitalised era, their art hugely effected ‘white washed asian’ zeroing in on the next by Asian origins and cultures. generation of young Thai’s, not truly fitting in either category of being Thai nor British, Image above: by Joey Barlow rather to be within and without. Qasim Riza Shaheen This study would be a very personal depiction of their life in England and how this has led Qasim Riza Shaheen presents a series of to them deciding to act on doing the exact Snapchat recordings in which he engages with reverse and to instead become ‘immigrants’ the act of embodying the songs of playback in their own motherland and venture back to singers and the mimetics of the actor in South one’s roots, in order to answer the complex Asian fillm cultures, namely, the subconscious question; who do you think you are? imitating of others, including extending that to the realm of desire. Appropriating Fa and Fon are London based artists/ the ‘wallah’ lineage and using the frame of designers working across a wide range of social media applications he queers and media, heavily influenced by today’s modern questions modes of representing power, pop and digitalised culture. Fon is currently love and desire. By lip-syncing recognisable studying at Central St Martins cultivating songs he defamiliarises them, thereby her understanding of design technological subverting expectations. In this presentation practice, whilst Fa is in the process of ‘Qasim Filmwallah’ we hear a recording of experimenting and extending her study of him thinking out loud as we experience his physical materials , together they combine temporal works, as the snapchat stories a satisfying mix of digital formats alongside disappearing from public view after 24 hours a tangible study, whether it be a blend of while, at the same time, being archived. Qasim Riza Shaheen is a British artist and writer based in Manchester. Working across participatory performance, installation, film Primarily trained in Kandyan Dance she was and photography, Shaheen’s practice explores a member of the acclaimed Chitrasena Vajira memory, autofiction, aspects and ideas of Dance Company for 13 years. In 2008, she beauty, sexuality, love and, more broadly, completed her Post Graduate Certificate in what are fundamental concerns about human Dance from LABAN Centre, London where nature. He is currently Associate Artist at she received the Michelle Simone Award for HOME in Manchester. His work has been Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. exhibited and programmed widely, including Primarily a solo artist, she has worked at Asia Contemporary Art Week, New York; collaboratively with choreographers, theatre MAC in Birmingham; Southbank Centre, directors, sound and visual artists in Europe, London; Brighton International Festival; South and East Asia since 2004. Her works Victoria & Albert Museum, London and at have been featured in performing and visual Liverpool Biennial. In 2018, a book The art festivals including Arts Basel, Singapore Last Known Pose: Essays and Reflections International Festival, Zurcher Theatre on the Work of Qasim Riza Shaheen, edited Spektakel, Dhaka Arts Summit, Colombo by Mary Ann Hushlak and Monica B Pearl, Art Biennale, Kyoto Experiment. She has was published by Publications. participated in international residencies in His website is: www.qasimrizashaheen.com Indonesia, India, South Korea, Sydney and Nepal. Venuri was curator of Colombo Dance Venuri Perera Platform 2016 and performing arts curator for South Bank Centre’s Women of the World Recently, there has been an increased Festival, Colombo edition. She is currently a interest in and funds for artists from visiting lecturer at the University of Visual and ‘transitioning’ countries. More independent Performing Arts. artists from these regions are being invited to international festivals and travelling to Performance by Venuri Perera: perform work creating global networks Passport Blessing Ceremony and communities. I will unpack issues surrounding ’representation’ when being Passports have varying degrees of power. programmed in international festivals as While certain citizens can visit almost a South Asian artist from a post conflict or anywhere in the world without any hindrance, ‘transitioning’ context and how I negotiate travel is heavily restricted for many others this position / framing, as opposed to a very as their nation’s passports are less powerful. different positioning when making work for This satirical ‘ceremony/modern ritual’ is local audiences. triggered by the intrusive processes these citizens have to face before entering another Venuri Perera is a Colombo based country, that perpetuate inequality based choreographer and performance artist. on citizenship. Her work has dealt with issues of violent nationalism, patriarchy, borders and class. Image above: Isuru Perera. Venuri Perera performing Kesel Maduwa at Colomboscope Festival 2015 ATM18 simply would not be possible without the extraordinary collective effort of all our partners across the city and indeed the world – our funders and venues, all the artists, curators, researchers, academics, volunteers and, of course, our audiences.

Special thanks go to the team at The Whitworth, for all their generous support in the production of this symposium.

Our thanks go out to all of you. See you next time! Festival Team

Artistic Director: Alnoor Mitha, MMU Production Director: Katie Popperwell Senior Communications Officer: Susan Ferguson Producers: Tom Emery, Anjum Malik, Jessica Spencer, Nuria Lopez Symposium producer: Dr Mary Ikoniadou Chair: Professor Sarah Perks, MMU

Design: Instruct Studio

ATM18 is supported by Arts Council England, Manchester Metropolitan University, HOME, Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, The Confucius Institute, the Korean Arts Council and the University of Creative Arts.

Image: ‘In Praise of Shadow’ 2016. Photo Credit Koya Yamashiro