WHAT have we done?
What HAVE we done?
What have WE done?
What have we DONE?
The Hong Kong based curator and thinker, Yang Yeung, inspired all involved in the Peer to Peer:UK/HK 2022 festival - artists and those within arts organisations - to reflect on our experience of working together.
How many times have our perceptions of time changed, by Covid and other means? How many times do we persist in time, time and time over, with the support of others?
Gabrielle Civil’s “Call for Experiments of Joy” (2014) has been one of them. Among the many prompting questions she puts, I love these the most:
“How does our work change when we create from a place of freedom? Are you available to yourself and your calling? How can we move through or without fear? How can we sustainably care for and be accountable to ourselves and one another? How can we achieve radical openness?”
Peer to Peer festival emphasises the verb “to” - an intermediary. It is up to participants to explore and define.
2,500 years ago, a wise woman by the name of Diotima spoke of love as a medium that seeks. She and her creator Plato, might be interested to know that Peer to Peer festival, is not enabled by contemplation alone, but it is by being present to each other, that truths are accessed in the worldly. Culturally specific legacies could be recalibrated, challenged, shared and owned, undergone in common and remade for the common, however provisional and contingent.
Donna Haraway puts the issue of living together in an over-populated world today well – challenging the impersonal “statemaking category” of “population”, she asks, instead, “The issue is, which worlds world worlds?” (in Making Kin Not Population, 2018)
Small worlds have been made in and for art and for all its contributory factors. Is art’s transformative power evident? Can it prevail?
Here lies some clues, from some of Peer to Peer participants, reflecting on and refusing to be confined by the following prompts:
“During Peer to Peer:UK/HK 2022,
I was inspired by...
I became aware of…
I began to connect with…
I began to connect through…
I laughed when…
I was impressed by…
I became curious about…
I experienced....
I observed...
I would suggest anyone embarking on a similar collaboration to...
I explored my creative practice by...
I explored my ideas by... I ...”
What joy to be opening letters sent from isle to isle, ocean to ocean. Even more so that they could be shared here with you.
In the pages that follow, I have highlighted, indicatively, not exhaustively: in yellow, words pertaining to “togetherness”; in blue, words pertaining to “future”; and in green, words pertaining to the ways we have been moving, and keep moving. Like ____.
What would you highlight, here, elsewhere, and everywhere?
Yang Yeung
During Peer to Peer:UK/HK 2022, I found out that every city has a hole which hides an unimaginable amount of imaginations.
Creative works by artists can often help us find the keys to unlock the hole, and invite the stories once hidden to flow out of the hole.
Clara Cheung (Sheffield-based)
There are 5,941 miles and 7 hours time difference between our artists in the UK and HK and yet they decided to take this as a strength and use it to their advantage in their creation of collaborative art.
I have been inspired by… the genuine and passionate exchanges that have taken place during the last few months. Being able to bring together brilliant artists and make space for them to collaborate and exchange ideas, research, imagery, history and knowledge, has been very powerful to watch.
Rebecca Burns
During Peer to Peer: UK/HK 2022,
I was a storyteller of stories from another storyteller; I was telling stories through stories from another storyteller; I was a listener of stories from a storyteller; I was listening to stories that have been told to another storyteller.
The same story was told in different times and places, was listened to in different times and places, and was understood in different times and places. Yet, they would never be the same.
though Loushan Pass is such a stronghold, yet we will prepare to conquer it starting from today.”) A quote from Mao that was used in one of the personal letters by an amateur photographer being narrated as part of the lecture performance.
It’d be lovely if C & G can collaborate with each of the different partners in the next five years.
P.S.: And I discovered that the normal class of mail service from the UK to HK is quite efficient. The other way around works very well too. Thanks! Postmen!
I was inspired by… the responsiveness and openness of all of the students.
I became aware of… a deepening of connection between students at Falmouth and HK, their shared commonalities, books they have read, objects they associated with, discussions of meaningful jewellery, some jewellery that expressed their changing personalities “I am HERE!” or jewellery that had family significance despite challenging family relationships.
meaningful we connectI began to connect through… descriptive language – hearing the HK students describe beautifully the view from their window at night as we all connected on Zoom was incredibly poetic and helped me connect on a deeper level.
I observed… confidence growing.
I laughed when… I had to write ‘Rhythm’ - twice no less - my least favourite word to write
I was impressed by… the descriptive language students individually came up with that created a collective poem. A poem of objects.
I became curious about… life in HK.
I would suggest anyone embarking on a similar collaboration… to start the connection early.
Emma Saffy Wilson (Cornwall-based) Gum Cheng
I was inspired by… everyone! I loved the way the partners came together and developed their own bespoke projects. It was truly wonderful to see everyone embrace and interpret the idea of distributed leadership in their own way.
I became aware that… I was organising an international festival from my dining table. I could have done this from my office in Salford, however I loved the fact that all the webinars and meetings took place in the heart of my Victorian terraced home, in a small town in North Lancashire. This is where I sit:
I loved that… I was making personal connections with individuals from across the UK and HK. A number of HK partners talked about the importance of sharing meals. I hope one day this will be possible – but in the meantime I have had everyone around my dining table!
I laughed when… Florence Lam told me that Chan Tze Woon, her videographer, was her partner. I laughed because Nicola Dale had just told me her videographer was her partner, Darren Nixon. Sometimes serendipity is just in the air! I love the way how they all collaborated and made such a great work – I become a question for you.
I was impressed by… the ingenuity and creativity of the artists – how everyone responded very differently to the brief.
I experienced moments of joy, especially hearing how the project had been so fruitful and such a valuable experience for the artists (Anna Sellen and Joseph Leung; Ama Dogbe and Yarli Allison)
I observed… generosity and curiosity.
I feel… privileged to have worked with so many great people – too many people to thank individually. The Peer to Peer:UK/HK 2022 team has been wonderful - thank you to Seb, Clara, Gum and Steve in particular. Thanks as always to Ying Kwok and Sarah Fisher, two inspirational women and natural collaborators. I look forward to our next adventure.
Lindsay Taylor
Each time we meet we enquire, we project our wish to shape the programme, we try to make room for others to fill in, we talk about learning while we are learning from fragments in communication, connecting that which have been told and that which hasn’t been said.
I became aware that I cannot contemplate the whole experience without the last discussion – the ending webinar: bringing out “pieces of each other” which sparkle ourselves. Simply by sitting down and engaging, and the meaning comes out.
“Just sit down together and engage” resonates with me in this (still) Covid-era in HK..
Yim Sui Fong
I experienced… a unique sense of togetherness. In my collaboration with Emma Lambert (UK artist) and Edwin Chuk(HK artist), we created at the same moment we shared in three different places. The counting down was exciting. We communicated instantly for the same purpose, yet without telling each other what we were going to do or record, and we would only know until sharing on a platform later on. When I saw their works, I felt surprised and touched more than I expected. Our photographs become a linkage to the same moment we shared at different places, but not merely the content within the photographs. The photographs are more than visually beautiful, I can also feel close to their experience through the collaboration. It is different to my usual perception of looking at a photograph, which is always distant in a way that I do not share common experience of the artist when the photograph was taken.
Terry Ng
I was inspired by… all the artists, organisations and my colleagues who worked hard to create a truly international digital exchange programme, with 18 organisations and a countless number of artists, in a short amount of time.
I would suggest anyone embarking on a similar collaboration to come with an open mind and push yourself to work in new and innovative ways.
I am thankful to Lindsay and Sarah for hiring me to work on this project.
Participating in a Peer-to-Peer exchange made me feel inspired by the possibility of working with artists from HK and being introduced to their local art scene. The number of creative voices we engaged with during P2P was thrilling and mind-opening.
Collaboration with HART was also a delight, which left a mark on BACKLIT’s artists and the team itself. Our artists got the chance of being showcased via a multicultural platform. We hope to connect again in the future and work on more projects together.
Sebah Chaudhry
Marta Marsicka
When we were first introduced (Castlefield Gallery and HKAC) it was clear there were a lot of ideas and a really strong desire to do something together. The challenge was deciding on what!
A lot of people (artists and creative professionals) put lots of effort in, in very different ways right up until the last minute. My highlight was seeing everything come together for the live event at Castlefield Gallery and then seeing the footage come in from the HKAC event was brilliant - and then putting everything together for the website was very inspiring and shows the potential and makes me want to work more in this way in the future.
Far away so close: all the members involved have tried various ways to brainstorm, discuss and contribute. “Way of being together” is a team effort and special thanks to Gass. He is really a good facilitator!
Matthew (Gass) Pendergast (Manchester-based)
Teresa Wong (HK-based)
I began to connect with some of the artists that I am interested in after looking at their work on the website, joining their online talk and chatting with them on social media. It is a good platform for me to look into both HK and the UK’s talented artists’ works and their approaches.
I was impressed by both Seema Mattu’s and Eason Tsang’s work. The love x lore by Seema Mattu is interesting and it builds an interactive online space for people to engage with, but also brings out the social aspects that she is concerned about in the game. It is nice to see Seema’s process to build the game and put in new elements, and when we start testing the game with different characters.
Burn by Eason Tsang is a video capturing the close-up moment of bubbles bursting onto the water surface. His work is based on his personal experience of petting fish during a harsh lockdown and presenting through the video. The endless and continuing bubble interested me to listen and look into the work.
I was doing my internship in Open Eye Gallery for the physical Peer to Peer programme during LOOK Photo Biennial 2019 before the pandemic and it is great to participate in an online version of Peer to Peer and cooperate with galleries and artists in Hong Kong, where I am originally from. The art scene and the practice in HK and the UK galleries are having both similarities and differences, so it is nice to work together, know and learn more from each other, and have more cooperation in the future.
I would suggest anyone embarking on a similar collaboration to create long-term cooperation and it is fascinating to see what kind of commissioned works and research will come up between artists and curators during the program.
Jodi KwokWe are thrilled to be able to participate in Peer to Peer:UK/HK programme again this year and collaborate with our UK partner BACKLIT. Evolved from last year’s focus on single artists’ projects, we are excited to see more organic conversations and connections between artists and organisations happening this year, resulting in wonderful collaborations across different cultures and languages such as Loop, as well as diversified presentations of artistic practices such as Instagram takeover led by artists from Hong Kong and Nottingham. It is also a great learning process for us to drive an intertwined connection between traditional art making at the studio and online communication and presentation through digital aids. We are truly thankful for the experience, and are looking forward to the next episode of Peer to Peer: UK/HK.
Dorcas LEUNG Cheung Ling (HK-based)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.”
I was inspired by the creativity of Clara & Gum.
I became aware of street names in Hong Kong.
I laughed when Clara & Gum decided to ‘pray’ for freedom.
I was impressed by the dedication of the organisers, Nicola Dale’s thinking and ideas.
I became curious about information vs wisdom.
I experienced appreciation.
I would suggest anyone embarking on a similar collaboration to broaden one’s thinking and to talk to strangers in your city.
I explored my ideas by collaborations that do not have to huge and complex to be meaningful.
I now want to try walking in Hong Kong with the map of Sheffield.
Chan
Peer to Peer:UK/HK 2022 came at a perfect time - a moment of tentative opening up as we all began to emerge from the restrictions of Covid and into a world where the fundamentals of socials relations, and everyone’s feelings about where they are, are being re-cast. Can we make a better, kinder, more collaborative and sustainable world, despite, or perhaps as a result of, our distance apart?
At Redeye, working with our colleagues at WMA and Open Eye, we came up with the theme of The Power of Place, and asked two questions. Firstly, how are photographic artists responding to the idea of place in the context of Covid and climate change? So many people are working differently, and we wanted to find out how. We produced something called the Power of Place directory. We put out an open call and everyone who responded to that is in the Directory, explaining how they view the idea of place. The Directory is a source book of what it is to be a creative photographer now. If you are stuck, in need of ideas and inspiration, pick out two or three images that appeal to you and read what the photographers have to say.
Paul HerrmannThe second question was how are artists working together in a context where it often has to be remote and long-distance - and can we actually find new and maybe even better ways of collaborating, locally and internationally? From all the submissions, WMA and Open Eye selected thirteen artists from Hong Kong and the UK and commissioned them in groups of two and three to collaborate to develop ideas of exchange and linked working. The results are equally compelling - everyone rose to the challenge. The restrictions were acknowledged, but surmounted. People exchanged letters, rolls of film, images on servers; they responded to what they saw and produced something new. People took the opportunity to start to get the pandemic and its difficulties into perspective. We are where we are, but there are still possibilities and new avenues to explore.
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Many people responded primarily visually. Photographs are their own language; it’s a global language that can float above the barriers of everyday life, make connections, and bring people together.
Finally, Peer to Peer gave me the opportunity to reflect on what it is to work as a photographic organisation; what our role is in supporting photographers and artists in a time of change
Our organisation feels stronger and better prepared for the future.
I was inspired by the power of our uterus.
I became aware of the power of our uterus.
I began to connect with the power of our uterus.
I began to connect through the power of fertilized eggs.
I laughed when I learn that these cells harvested from human eggs might actually be able to become sperms.
I was impressed by the question about life and disposable body tissue that might become life.
I became curious about how fiction is formed. I observed....the pain in my uterus becoming biodata.
I would suggest anyone embarking on a similar collaboration to....the power of embryonic stem cells.
Yarli AllisonI explored my creative practice by making up fiction...’what if?’
I explored my ideas by asking what if the embryonic stem cells has taken over our world, the power of humans with the uterus... gender inequity, in reverse.
In 2021, during the closing zoom party of the inaugural edition of Peer to Peer Festival, I read aloud Ursula K. LeGuin’s poem, “Constellating”:
Mind draws the lines between the stars that let the Eagle and the Swan fly vast and bright and far above the dark before the dawn.
Between two solitary minds as far as Deneb from Altair, love flings the unimaginable line that marries fire to fire.
Projects manifest in “editions” as production, linear-time. They also, like guests, visit in sensuous time, seafaring time, cosmic time, snack time, beer time, question time, handholding time, facetime, zoom-time, all the time, in no time… Perhaps together we have iterated time – in which we are trapped, by which we are liberated, with which we remain always already each other.
WHAT have we done?
What HAVE we done?
What have WE done?
What have we DONE?
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.
The Project Team includes:
Richard Carr, Symposium Co-ordinator
Sebah Chaudhry, UK Producer
Clara Cheung and Gum Cheng, C&G artpartment, HK Producers
Steve McWade, Technical Manager
Jackie Bennett Shaw, PR and Communications
The organisations overleaf are all Peer to Peer: UK/HK partners and represent visual arts organisations from across Hong Kong and the 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. https://peertopeerexchange.org
Design: Declan Connolly
