A project by AGWA and the Simon Lee Foundation
The Simon Lee Foundation Institute of Contemporary Asian Art (SLF ICAA) is a major new creative and curatorial initiative at The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA).
Generously supported by the Simon Lee Foundation, this visionary project will enrich and deepen AGWA’s connections with contemporary art practices and cultural thinking in Asia and its diaspora communities.
Through an integrated program of research, digital projects, exhibitions, residencies and collection development, SLF ICAA will present new and notable Asian artists, and foster the exchange of art and ideas throughout Western Australia and the wider region in partnership with our global institutional peers.
SLF ICAA is led by Rachel Ciesla
(Lead Creative, Simon Lee Foundation)
WONG PING
Wong Ping is one of the most spirited artists to have emerged in the past decade. He is known for his colourful, playfully-intimate style of animation that tell tantalising tales of contemporary Hong Kong life.
Boldly located in the Gallery foyer, this newly commissioned mural draws on Wong’s trademark humour to explore how human connections are shaped within technologically mediated worlds where reality and fantasy blur in the strangest and most unsettling of ways.
IMAGE: WONG PING, ‘SLOW SEX’, 2013, SINGLE CHANNEL VIDEO ANIMATION, 2 MIN 40 SEC. PURCHASED THROUGH THE ART GALLERY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA FOUNDATION: TOMORROWFUND, 2022
KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR AND PAT PATARANUTAPORN
Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy
FREE, BOOKINGS REQUIRED
Kawita Vatanajyankur creates performances and videos that require her to endure prolonged physical and emotional hardship. These performances are offered as a critical response to the exploitation of textile workers, the problems associated with hyperconsumerism, and the changing relations between humans and machines.
‘Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy’ (2022) is a new, live performance by Vatanajyankur made in collaboration with Pat Pataranutaporn from Fluid Interface at MIT Media Lab. Directed by two cybernetic selves, in this durational performance Vatanajyankur becomes a human-machine hybrid as she uses her body to thread a massive graph-like textile pattern across the floor of the Gallery’s concourse.
IMAGE: KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR, 'KNIT II', 2021, 4K VIDEO. COURTESY THE ARTIST, NOVA CONTEMPORARY AND ANTIDOTE ORGANISATION.
BODIED – 01 UNCLAIMED IDEAS
Book Launch & Artist Talk
FREE
Join us for the launch of BODIED, the first title in the new series ‘Unclaimed Ideas’ co-published by AGWA and SLF ICAA.
Timed to coincide with the premiere of two commissioned works by Kawita Vatanajyankur and Wong Ping, both of whom are featured in BODIED, curator Rachel Ciesla will be in conversation with Vatanajyankur as they discuss her performance ‘Mental Machine: Labour in the Self Economy’.
BODIED unites an internationally diverse group of artists who, in positioning the body at the centre of their work, explore how our physical forms are shaped by the social worlds around us. In this book, curators Rachel Ciesla and Robert Cook present a collection of interviews with Cheryl Donegan, Jani Ruscica, Kawita Vatanajyankur, and Wong Ping that explore how their practices intersect with current changing political and cultural contexts.
JOIN US
Your support helps SLF ICAA to present contemporary Asian art and ideas to the widest possible audience.
As an Individual
Our community of supporters are committed to the development of contemporary Asian art.
As a Trust or Foundation
Our ambitious program is made possible with the support of charitable trusts and foundations.
As a Corporate Partner
Provide crucial support for contemporary Asian art and artists by joining SLF ICAA as a corporate partner.