Gayle Chong Kwan

Dr. Gayle Chong Kwan is a British artist who explores perspectives and possibilities to observe, model, and contest aspects of historical, political, and ecological life that traverse the material and spiritual, modes of interiority and exteriority, and the individual and collective. Her photographic works, installations, moving image work, performances, and ritual sensory events act within and against histories of oppression to position the viewer as one element in a cosmology of the political, personal, social, and ecological. Dr. Gayle Chong Kwan's research is based around in individual methodology of fine art practice, but is one that manifests with and through social practices that engender change in the way the organisations and institutions can work with collecting, commissioning, remembering, redistributing, returning, and making meaning with audiences and artists. PhD Doctoral Thesis, Royal College of Art, London (2023), 'Imaginal Travel: political and ecological positioning as fine art practice'.

Representation
Martina Gracis martina@albertapane.com
Galerie Alberta Pane, Paris and Venice.

Press
Binita Walia binita@thespaceinbetween.co.uk
The Space inBetween, London.

Supported by
The Artists Agency, UK.

Email

studio@gaylechongkwan.com

Social Media

Instagram
Small Screenshot 2023 07 09 at 09 05 36

Academic

2022 PhD, Practice-Based Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London

'Imaginal Travel' - Research explores how travel can be reconceptualized as movements around us, in us and through us, as we move and all moves, rather than human agency moving through static landscape or safely framed places and people and how particular modes of travel enabled and indeed foretold future possible acts of political oppression, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation.

2015 MPhil, Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London

2000 BA Hons, Fine Art, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London

1995 MSc, Communications, University of Stirling

1994 BA Hons in Politics and Modern History, University of Manchester
Specialism: Sub-Saharan Post-Colonial Politics and History

Awards

2019 Winner
Sustainable Art Prize
Commissioned to develop year-long project 'Waste Matters' with Academics and students at Ca' Foscari University Venice

2015 International Fellow, New York
Arts Council England and British Council

2014 Recipient
FATHOM Award
Four Corners, UK
Commissioned to develop video work 'Plot' through shooting in Mauritius and editing in London

2013 Winner
REFOCUS The Castlegate mima Photography Prize
Commissioned to develop 40metre photographic work 'Arripare' installed in public realm in Stockton-on-Tees

2012 Recipient
Royal Scottish Academy Award

2009 Winner
Photography Prize
Vauxhall Collective

2005 Winner
Pépinières Européennes pour Jeunes Artistes
Awarded UNIDEE Residency at Fondazione Pistoletto

Publications

2021 'Gayle Chong Kwan. Waste Matters'. Ca' Foscari University, Venice.

2020 'Gayle Chong Kwan: Wastescape - weaving landscapes of politics, dairy and waste', in Under the Southern Stars', Published by Te Tuhi, New Zealand

2019 Chong Kwan, G. 'Imaginal Travel: An Expedition in Fine Art Practice in Search of the Loneliest Palm' pp. 325 - 336
Boyd, P. and Edwardes, C. eds.
'Non-Representational Theory and the Creative Arts'
Palgrave Macmillan

2016 Mauch, Christof, ed. “Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Politics and Culture of Waste,” RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2016, no. 1.
p52

2015 'Why Would I Lie?'. Royal College of Art Biennale. Royal College of Art.

2015 'Experimental Eating'. Black Dog Publishing.

2014 'Mindscape'. Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt.

2011 'Invisible Twinning'. Urban Meridian, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin.

2011 Gayle Chong Kwan 'The Obsidian Isle'.
Graphical House.

2009 Gayle Chong Kwan 'The Grand Tour'.
ArtSway.

2009 10th Havana Bienale Publication. Havana Biennale.

2009 Wells, L. ed. 'Photography: A Critical Introduction'. 4th Edition
Routledge.

2009 'Platform for Art. Art on the Underground'. Black Dog Publishing.

2009 'Open Space. Art in the Public Realm in London 1995-2005'. Arts Council England.

2009 'Stilled. Contemporary Still Life Photography by Women'. IRIS Ffotogallery.

Lectures/Talks/Workshops

2022 Workshop. Creativity in Social Work. Goldsmiths University, London.

2022 Wobble Room. University of Chichester.

2022 Development of Resources and Workshop. Museum in my Room. Great Ormond Street Hospital. V&A, London.

2022 Creative Antartica workshop with climate scientist. Great Exhibition Road Festival, London.

2022 Talk. Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh.

2022 Workshops. V&A Offsite. V&A, London.

2022 Creative Mentor. New Town Culture. Barking and Dagenham, London.

2021 Judge. Residency selection. Museum of the Home, London.

2021 Consultant and Development of Workshops. Innovate. V&A, London.

2020 'Make Your Own Space', New Town Culture, Borough of Barking and Dagenham/Serpentine Gallery/Foundling Museum [Dec 2020]

2020 'Dream Tapestry: Social Sewing Session', Waltham Forest Digital Commission [12 December 2020]

2020 'Another World is Possible' led by Peter Kennard and Gayle Chong Kwan, MA Groups Project, Royal College of Art [Nov and Dec 2020]

2020 'Waste Matters', Talks and Workshops with academic and students, Ca' Foscari University, Venice [September - December 2020]

2020 'Creative Practice with Gayle Chong Kwan', V&A Innovate Talk
https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/5QaLBz80/innovate-creative-practice-with-gayle-chong-kwa [24 November 2020]

2020 Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm [17 November 2020]

2020 'A Disturbance in the Force: Artistic Responses to the Pandemic in China, Yale University https://alumni.yale.edu/events/disturbance-force-artistic-responses-pandemic-china
[21 May 2020]

Biennales

2015 Why Would I Lie? Royal College of Art Research Biennale, London
'Plot' (2015)

2014 The Social: Encountering Photography, North East

2011 Urban Meridian, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Asia-Pacific Biennale, Berlin
Gayle Chong Kwan, Giulia Giannola and Francesca Mila Nemni ‘Invisible Twinning’

2011 New Forest Pavilion, 54 Biennale di Venezia
'The Obsidian Isle' (2011)

2009 Tales from the New World, 10th Havana Biennale
'Cockaigne' (2004)

Academic Teaching

2022 Talk. Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh.

2022 Wobble Room. University of Chichester.

2022 Workshop and Lecture. Creativity in Social Work. Goldsmiths University, London.

2022 Teaching Fellow. Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh.

2020 Lecturer with Peter Kennard. Anything is Possible. Royal College of Art, London.

2019 Lectures and Workshops. Waste Matters. Ca' Foscari University, Venice.