Asymmetry Rituals unfolded as a one-day event in two segments on Friday, 13.10.2023, amidst London Frieze Week at One Marylebone.
The morning session, Day Rituals, kicked off with a spoken word performance by Amiko Li, serving as an invocation to initiate the day within a communal setting. Adapting his recent work, 'too quiet to hear,' to One Marylebone, Li presented a performance interweaving his personal narratives into a sonic experience, utilising text, voice, and the nuances of meaning. This marked Li's inaugural performance in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Following the performance, Li was joined in a panel discussion by artist Michele Chu and curator and educator Ute Meta Bauer. The discussion was moderated by Director Michèle Ruo Yi Landolt.
At the core of human nature lies the desire to engage in rituals to hold emotion, forge connection, and seek transformation. Especially in times of change and uncertainty, we resort to actions arising from convention, habit, or ceremony to create safety and bond with ourselves, others, and beyond. Breaking down the barriers between ritual as a series of actions in prescribed order and performance as expressive exploration, the panel delved into notions of ritualistic engagement in artistic practice today. Li's multidisciplinary work spans language, structures, sounds, and their intersections, while Chu examines the tension between collective and individual dynamics through the body. Together, the speakers explored the manifold meanings that rituals and rites can invoke, and how institutional practice can support and perpetuate these engagements.
After a break for tea and snacks, the current Asymmetry Fellows in residence at our partner institutions—Goldsmiths University, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Chisenhale Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, and Delfina Foundation—rounded off the event with introductory presentations on their research and practice, bringing a fulfilling conclusion to this day of artistic exploration and dialogue.
BIOGRAPHY
Ute Meta Bauer is the Founding Director of NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and a Professor in the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University. She co-chairs the Master of Arts in Museum Studies and Curatorial Practices and is the Principal Investigator for “Climate Crisis and Cultural Loss”. Most recently, Bauer curated the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia, featuring Shubigi Rao’s Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book. She also served as a curator of the 17th Istanbul Biennial alongside David Teh and Amar Kanwar (both in 2022). She is currently the artistic director of Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (2024). Bauer’s current edited volumes include Climates. Habitats. Environments. (MIT Press and NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, 2022); Joan Jonas: Moving of the Land (Walther König, 2022); and, Of Haunted Spaces: Cinema, Heterotopias, and China’s Hyperurbanization on the films of Ella Raidel (NUS Press, 2023).
Michele Chu is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Hong Kong. Her practice explores intimacy and human connection, specifically the interplay between sensory elements and space to amplify emotional connection between individuals. Her works contemplate what makes us human, through mediums like performances, sculptures, multi-sensory installations and public interventions amongst others.
Michele graduated from the Royal College of Art & Imperial College London with an MA/MSc in Global Innovation Design, and Pratt Institute with a BFA in Communications Design (Illustration). Her works have received coverage in publications including ArtReview, The New York Times, ArtForum and Frieze, and have been shared on global platforms such as TEDx. Her work has been shown at 1a Space (Hong Kong), Negative Space (Hong Kong), and Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong).
Amiko Li is an interdisciplinary artist who translates everyday stories and encounters into film, installation, and performance, to explore and contextualize the underlying complexities and themes, such as intimacy, waiting, and value. Li received his BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA from Rutgers University. His most recent exhibitions and performances include: Center for Art, Research and Alliances, New York, USA (2023); Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China (2022); The Shed, New York, USA (2021); House of Electronic Arts, Basel, Switzerland (2021); UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2020); University of Georgia, Athens, USA (2020); Anthology Film Archive, New York, USA (2019) and Abrons Arts Center, New York, USA (2018) Li is currently an artist-in-residence at Delfina Foundation.