Special Projects
London, Asia The London, Asia research project is co-led by the Paul Mellon Centre’s Director, Sarah Victoria Turner, and Hammad Nasar, Senior Research Fellow. By convening workshops, talks and conferences along three research strands – exhibitions, institutions and art schools – the London, Asia research project is working towards a more expanded and diverse narrative of British art. The project has built a large, dynamic and international community of researchers, artists, curators and educators who regularly interact through events and meetings. The project was established in collaboration with Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, in 2016, and after the successful completion of phase one in June 2019, the project was awarded a further two years of funding by the Board of Governors to support a second phase of activity until June 2021. A third and final phase is focused on the delivery of the exhibition Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia and Friends, to be held at Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, from November 2023 to February 2024. This is a research-led project that focuses on the artist Li Yuan-chia’s LYC Museum & Art Gallery in the village of Banks, in the northwest of England, between 1972 and 1983. The exhibition will be curated by Hammad Nasar, Sarah Victoria Turner and Amy Tobin (Curator of Exhibitions, Events and Research at Kettle’s Yard and Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge). The exhibition brings together works by Li and the artists who were part of the artistic programme at the LYC (including Winifred Nicholson, David Nash, Lygia Clark, Takis and Liliane Lijn), alongside contemporary artists whose work resonates with the spirit of Li and the LYC. It will be accompanied by a catalogue and a programme of public events and performances, including a satellite exhibition at the West Court Gallery at Jesus College, Cambridge, focusing on Li’s ink paintings. The project has also funded the digitisation of the collection of LYC Museum exhibition catalogues held at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library at the University of Manchester; and hosted an artist residency for Charwei Tsai at Wysing Arts Centre in rural Cambridgeshire.
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Li Yuan-chia, Untitled, 1970, paint on fabric wall hanging (detail). Image courtesy of the Li Yuan-chia Foundation. Photo: Matthew Hollow
