“Walls All Around” is a group show collaborated with 7 Asian emerging artists, Yage Guo, Yifan He, Yunju Tsai, Heidi Li, Wenxuan Wang, Boxuan Sun, Ruoru Mou. The group show took place at Fusion, Nottingham, 21-27th of June. Curated by Yage Guo, supported by Misi Liu，BAHC Advisory and Fusion.
During the lockdown, the whole creative community had experienced significant challenges and radical racial equality movements. As a response, the show focused on UK based Asian artists’ developing process, discussing how Asian diasporas root themselves in a foreign land, consider their heritage and adapt to contemporary British art scene. “Walls All Around” included 7 young Asian artists coming from various places and currently practicing at the Slade, RCA and CSM. The show presented artists’ latest art pieces made in the lockdown period.
The concept of the show focused on “changes”. The restriction of space motived artists to explore new forms and materials in creation. In the first show room, the displaying artworks were artists’ latest experiments, using 3D printing technology, home objects and moving images. Moving along to the second show room, the displaying artworks showed outcomes of artists’ internal changes and explorations. Artists applied photography and painting to interpret their longing of roots and the curiosity of individuality.
While the show presented artists’ latest artworks, three artists-oriented events were organized to interact with the visiting audiences.
On the 21st of June, artist Yifan He performed her recent collaborative piece, “Crybb manifesto”- a collaborative poetry writing. The performance explored shared vulnerability and sentiment through group poetry recited with the audience.
On the 23rd of June, artists Yage Guo and Yunju Tsai had an artist talk about the making of paintings during the lockdown, discussing how the painting process explores the artist’s self and interpret with memories. At the end of the talk, a Q&A conversation took place for audiences and artists to exchange different thoughts and experiences.
On the 24th of June, artist Heidi Li started an air-dry clay workshop. Audiences were guided to explore the flexibility and materiality of air-dry clay through DIY their own objects, encouraging everyone to explore their unique creativity and imagination.
