Teahouse Discussion with Channel_ A in conversation with p-10
A discussion with artists groups Channel_A (Taiwan) and p-10 (Singapore) about their work and how they respond to, engage with and protest against the cultural, political and social climate in which they live and work. With Hongjohn Lin (Channel_A), Jennifer Teo (p-10), Jeremy Chu and Kai Lam.
Chairperson, Kooj Chuhan, introduced each of the artists.
Hongjohn Lin talked about the "fantasy" utopian island that he had produced and suggested that it was in some ways a portrayal of people's fascination with the idea of the "other". Someone asked the question, "What is the role of the work? What kind of intervention is it"? Hongjohn Lin replied that what he does is try to "expose" the logic of the things that he is exploring, "that's the protest", he said.
This led the conversation onto the question of "Whose utopia are we buying into? How has Manchester been changed through regeneration?" and "How can a utopia easily become a dystopia"?
Taking us to the question of the local, and the idea that perhaps, "everyone has their own island".
Jennifer Teo spoke about p-10's project at Castlefield Gallery; how they wanted to directly investigate the local on a local scale, and how they saw their "protest" as a counter-balance rather than an "anti-intervention". Jennifer described how p-10 wanted to come to Manchester and make a platform where local people can speak, rather than coming and showing something “exotic”. p-10 and the Teahouse participants discussed how things could still be described as ‘local’ even if they are not so geographically and the conversation turned to the idea of ‘the myth of the local’ as well as the ‘myth of the global’.
It was suggested that the Asia Triennial is organized around a hierarchical international model, but could have been organized by independent institutions. It was also asked, “Why must we import Asian artists for the festival? Why could we not work with artists who engage with Asia?” KD
