Research Outcome
A DIACHRONIC RECORD: EXPANDED PROGRAMME
curated by Rachel Be-Yun Wang
Asymmetry, 102a Albion Drive, London E8 4LY
Multiple Opening Times, 31.07–27.09.2024
'A Diachronic Record: Expanded Programme’ is the continuation of the programme series of the same name, curated by Rachel Be-Yun Wang, our 2023 Curatorial Research Fellow at Chisenhale Gallery, and running throughout the summer. It centres on Writing the Time Lag (2014-present), an experimental documentary by Taiwanese artist and filmmaker Lee Tzu Tung which we launched with a screening and display walkthrough, navigating the question of how one makes sense of national identity within a transnational public sphere. Read more about it here.
On three ensuing dates, the expanded programme will continue to unfold the self-reflective aspect of the project with a vitrine presentation and screenings of past iterations of the film.
In the form of vitrine displays, the artist and curator have created a selection of related research materials that came out of the 10-year filming and editing process, encompassing photo prints, field notes, texts, documents, and book objects. The archive offers viewers a valuable behind-the-scenes perspective of the unseen, unresolved, and often unaddressed tension between the fluid responsiveness of an ongoing artistic process to its subjects, and the seemingly fixed finality of an artwork in exhibition, and thus the difficulty and responsibility to rethink the act of archiving within and beyond institutional practices.
In conjunction with the vitrine presentation, past iterations of Writing the Time Lag will be screened in chronological order, which conveys, in diachrony, the sheer temporal scale and substantial depth of Lee's project.
OPENING TIMES
1-5PM, 31.07.2024
1-5PM, 22.08.2024
1-5PM, 27.09.2024
'A Diachronic Record' forms an interim chapter of a year-long research project by Rachel Be-Yun Wang, our 2023 Curatorial Research Fellow at Chisenhale Gallery. Spanning on-site research and interviews with curators and conservators across multiple European institutions, Rachel is currently researching the documentation of time-based media within commissioning, looking to understand how—and what—we document in the active processes of commissioning and producing new artistic work, while interrogating how we produce and enact artistic labour with historicity and posterity in mind. The outcome will be a publication that will serve as an industry-shared resource, available online and in limited print. An associated publication launch will take place at Chisenhale Gallery in October 2024, with further details to be announced soon.
Additional support is provided by Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), University of Westminster. Support to Lee Tzu-Tung on the occasion of this project is provided by the National Culture and Arts Foundation and Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government.
ACCESS INFORMATION
Mandarin, Amis, and English are spoken in Writing the Time Lag, which is primarily subtitled in English. Due to its roaming, multilingual subtitle text, the film is not further captioned. The film’s contents include depictions of nudity and mentions of sexual assault.
This event takes place on the ground floor with step-free access in our multi-purpose programme space, with a fully accessible, all-gender bathroom. Earplugs and ear guards will be available for visitors to use.
Please feel free to inquire with info@asymmetryart.org if you would like to learn more about the film, or discuss any accommodations or access needs. Please kindly be advised that requests should be made one week in advance of the event, and we will try our best to make accommodations subject to availability.
BIOGRAPHY
Lee Tzu-Tung is a Taiwan-based conceptual artist. Combining academic research with political activism, their work involves participatory processes, an open-source ethos, and decentralised technologies. Growing up amid Taiwan's multifaceted generational identity struggle, their art practice questions how marginalised communities can 'queer-up' contemporary hegemonies after generational colonial traumas. As a political organiser, Lee hosted monthly conferences at Café Philo Chicago (2016–2018) and participated in NGO Overseas Taiwanese for Democracy, while serving as an Editor of the bilingual political magazine New Bloom. They are also the leader and visual designer for a rally of 200 people Anti-Black Box Education (2016), 40 cities-wide rally Equality of Same-Sex Marriage (2016), and the organiser of the indigenous protest Passage of Time (2016). Lee is the founder of Tinyverse NPO, which facilitates transdisciplinary, collaborative art projects, and is curator of Sensefield, an art and anthropology biennale.
Lee graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MS) Art, Culture and Technology Program and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA) Film, Video, Animation and New Media Program. Their work has been exhibited at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, MOCA Taipei (TW), MIT Museum (US), Lisbon University (PT), ArtScape (CA), Transmediale (DE), ADL (KR), and Hyundai Studio (CN).
Rachel Be-Yun Wang works in curating and art-making, with a practice that involves exhibition, written, and studio production. As the 2023/24 Asymmetry Curatorial Research Fellow at Chisenhale Gallery, she has assisted with developing exhibitions, publications, and public programmes around the commissions of Rory Pilgrim, Joshua Leon, Alia Farid, Benoît Piéron, and Lotus Laurie Kang. Previous exhibition projects include the Beijing Art and Technology Biennale: Synthetic Ecology (798CUBE, 2022), Ever Archive: The Publications and Publication Projects of Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serralves Foundation, 2022), and Material Tales: The Life of Things (Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, 2021). Rachel has guest lectured at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China, produced multiple publications and vitrine exhibitions with the Hans Ulrich Obrist Publication Archive, and pursues an independent writing and artistic practice.
Rachel Be-Yun Wang is currently the 2023 Asymmetry Curatorial Research Fellow at Chisenhale Gallery.