Category: news

Press Release 07/09/22

Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022

Inspiring exchange between visual arts in the UK and Hong Kong

26^th September – 9^th October 2022

Partners and artists announced

Download Chinese version

Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022 is a programme designed to encourage meaningful cultural exchange and to forge enduring partnerships between the UK and Hong Kong’s visual arts sectors.

Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022 builds on the success of the pilot festival in 2020.  Working within a distributed leadership framework, 9 UK visual arts organisations have developed partnerships with 9 Hong Kong organisations, to create unique projects that encourage exchange between more than 43 artists, and over 160 students, in and from each place. This culminates publicly in an online festival from 26^th September until 9^th October 2022, curated and shaped by and with the partners. 

We are delighted to announce the partnerships and artists are:

• Backlit Gallery (Nottingham) with HART: Millie Quick (UK), Nicholas Wong (HK), Tom Ireland (UK)
• BOM (Birmingham) with Videotage: Ama Dogbe (UK) and Yarli Alison (HK)
• Castlefield Gallery (Manchester) with Hong Kong Arts Centre: Omid Asadi (UK) and Karen Yu (HK), Kelly Jane Jones (UK) and Lazarus Chan (HK), John Powell Jones (UK) and Kong Kee (HK) 
• Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange with 1983: Staff and students from Falmouth University and Chan Ting (HK) with students from Fine Arts Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Open Eye Gallery, (Liverpool) and Redeye, The Photography Network with WMA: Anna Sellen (UK), Emma Lambert (UK), Lucy Saggers (UK), Seongsu Kim (UK), Melanie King (UK), Johannes Pretorius (UK), Joseph LEUNG Mong Sum (HK), Edwin CHUK Yin Man (HK), Andrew FONG Hin Nam (HK), Samson WONG Pak Hang (HK), Terry Ng (HK), Fion HUNG Chin Yan (HK), Iris Sham (HK)
• Open School East (Margate) with Rooftop Institute: Hicham Gardarf (UK) and Morgan Wong (HK)
• QUAD (Derby) with Blindspot Gallery: Seema Mattu (UK) and Eason Tsang Ka Wai (HK)
• University of Salford Art Collection with 1a space: Clara and Gum @ C & G Artpartment (UK) and Mark Chung (HK)
• University of Salford Art Collection with Per.Platform: Nicola Dale (UK) and Florence Lam (HK) with Chan Tze Woon (HK) and Darren Nixon (UK)

Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022 is organised by Open Eye Gallery and University of Salford Art Collection with support from Arts Council England.

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022 contemplates how the visual arts sector can continue to be outward facing and international whilst considering the future of our planet and the need to reduce our impact on it.   Taking learning from the Covid pandemic, none of the participants have travelled to the UK or Hong Kong, instead the partners and the artists have used their creativity and ingenuity to collaborate meaningfully – from live performance with digital exchange, to postal exchange to working together in gaming or other digital environments.  

The Online Festival will include the nine new projects  as well as events, presentations and creative research that reflects the genuine collaborations between artists and supported by partner organisations.  A symposium will bring together partners, artists and external speakers to explore, investigate, and consider how remote working can, and does, lead to meaningful and sustainable partnerships, and cultural exchange.

Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022 has been developed by Sarah Fisher, Open Eye Gallery and Lindsay Taylor, University of Salford Art Collection, with contributions from Ying Kwok, independent curator, Hong Kong.

Website: https://www.peertopeerexchange.org

#PeertoPeerUKHK2022

For more information and images please contact: sebah@openeye.org.uk

Peer to Peer: UK / HK – Ways of Being Together | Castlefield Gallery

Live event with performance and video screening 

Part of Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022, Castlefield Gallery is working with Hong Kong Art Centre to co-present the work of six artists: online on the Peer to Peer festival website (live 26th Sep – 9th Oct) and through two live events (Castlefield Gallery Sep 8th and HKAC Sep 16th).

The artists were put into pairs and invited to get to know each other’s work. During the two events the artists who will be physically present in their home cities will stand in for those that are absent, in an attempt to embody their work for the audience. The aim of this project is to help the artists contextualise and communicate their work to a distant audience and to explore ways of connecting, exchanging and being together – on and off screen.

For the event at Castlefield Gallery, Omid Asadi and Karen Yu will open a dialogue over the internet which will interact with pre-recorded material and live performance incorporating the artists’ readings of poems and literature in their native languages (Persian and Cantonese). John Powell-Jones will introduce a short video work made in collaboration with Kong Kee, in which the world of Kee’s Dragon Delusion will be explored through the eyes of Atamur, an avatar that recently appeared as the central character in Powell-Jones’ Web Wide World comic and interactive art work. Kelly Jayne Jones and Lazarus Chan are creating a shared digital space which will be presented in an immersive sound performance with sonic elements; considering ‘Morphic Resonance’ and the potential for actions no matter how small to have repercussions and connect us across the globe. 

BOM are excited to be collaborating with Videotage, a Hong Kong based new media art organisation as part of the Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022.

After meeting up with Videotage, BOM discovered that there were several curatorial threads that interested them both; creating work within or inspired by games and the relationship between virtual worlds and the human body / state. BOM wanted to run a short, online residency shaped by these themes and we are delighted to announce the artists chosen to take part, Ama Dogbe & Yarli Allison.

The Residency will take place in early September with a discussion event taking place late September / early October as part of the Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022 Festival. Keep an eye on our socials (@BOMLab) to find out more…