Publication Launch
GET LOW, LIKE BUMPKIN CANNON 土炮之书
Ye Funa, Lu Williams
Asymmetry HQ, 102a Albion Drive, London E8 4LY
7–9PM, 21.05.2025
Join us for the launch of Get Low, Like Bumpkin Cannon 土炮之书, a zine produced by Ye Funa as a project outcome of the 2024 Librarians-in-Residence programme. The publication is an archive of the research and activities carried out during her residency, featuring newly commissioned texts, artwork and comics, including edited archival material.
Get Low, Like Bumpkin Cannon 土炮之书 records Funa’s reflections on the concept of ‘earth’ 土, documenting her research into local Chinese self-publishing practices, the relationship between art and labour, fan cultures and DIY subcultures. It champions the ‘bumpkin cannon’ 土炮 aesthetic as a remedy to cultural homogeneity, commodification, and capitalist exploitation, offering an imaginative, autonomous and disruptive form of creation cultivated from the margins, as a more decentralised form of knowledge production. The zine delivers a titillating blend of thematic investigations into core questions such as: why is copying seen as incompatible with creativity? Why is art often not considered to be labour? What does it mean to embrace ‘active laziness’? Read her ‘Love Letters’, including an interview with self-publishers Display Distribute and Fuyin.info; or hungrily leaf through the ‘Earthy Bumpkin Kitchen’ menu, where Yifan Wang serves up bitesize summaries of archived programme events.
The launch will feature a conversation between Funa and Lu Williams, founder of Grrrl Zine Library. We are pleased to announce that Get Low, Like Bumpkin Cannon 土炮之书 is a free publication which visitors can take with them on the night.
Get Low, Like Bumpkin Cannon 土炮之书 (2025) is authored by Ye Funa and published by Asymmetry. It features contributions from writer Yifan Wang, artist Zijie, and Bi Xin, Elaine W. Ho, Yasmine Anlan Huang, Mabu Li, Dr Ruoxi Liu, Bart Seng Wen Long, Shao Mohan, Ruini Shi, Tian Jiayi, Ziyi Wang, Matthew Worley, and Dr Linzhi Zhang. The zine is edited by Yifan Wang and designed by TangTang.
FREE ENTRY, TICKET HERE
ACCESS INFORMATION
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.
Please feel free to inquire with info@asymmetryart.org if you would like to discuss any 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
Ye Funa (she/her) is an artist and researcher based between London and Beijing.
Her practice critically engages with the realities of daily life and the perceived nexus between authority and various societal domains. Her politically charged art uses pastiche to critique and satirise cultural uniformity. Funa’s recent work incorporates new technologies to develop participatory, internet-based projects like Exhibitionist: Curated Nail and Smart Master, which probe the integration of art systems into personal and communal spaces. As a passionate advocate for self-publishing, Funa is co-founder of the independent publishing brand MondayOFF, editor and author of artist books like Shamate zine and Fire Golden Flowers. She teaches at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, and at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London. Funa’s work has been exhibited worldwide, including at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney; Nottingham Contemporary, UK; Museum für Fotografie, Berlin; National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei; esea contemporary, Manchester; Power Station of Art, Shanghai; Chronus Art Center, Shanghai; Art Center Nabi, Seoul; and Rhizome, New Museum, New York.
Lu Williams (they/them) is an artist based in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, UK. Their interdisciplinary practice spans sculpture, video, print, social and public art, through the lenses of queerness, neurodivergence and working classness. They are interested in paraphernalia, souvenirs, cultural offcuts, ephemera and zines. In 2015, they founded Grrrl Zine Fair, an event and platform for art, music and culture surrounding feminist publishing. In 2017, Lu created the Grrrl Zine Library, a portable installation and collection. GZL holds 1000+ queer and feminist zines at The Old Waterworks (TOW) artists’ studios in Southend-on-Sea, UK, and has been exhibited at Whitechapel Gallery, V&A Museum, Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, BFI and Mead Gallery. Its online archive launched in May 2024 supported by Arts Council and Everyday Heritage. Mixing publishing with public art, Lu has been commissioned by Cement Fields, Offset Projects, Tate and is part of Care Contractors Collective. They are working on a public sculpture with Focal Point Gallery and will be City Of London Artist In Residence 2025. Lu attended Central St Martin’s (2012–13), Ruskin School of Art, Oxford (2013–16) and The Other MA in Southend-on-Sea (2019–21).