Asymmetry Distinguished Lecture Series 2024

Critical Habitats

Critical habitats is a term that refers to the fragile ecosystems that endangered species rely upon to survive. Beyond its origins in the environmental sciences, the literary theorist Emily Apter has used it to describe ecologically-informed aesthetic practices that explore ‘the links between territorial habitat and intellectual habitus; between physical space and ideological forcefield, between economy and ecology.’ For Apter, these geo-poetic investigations provide a means of ‘denaturalising’ the illusion of friction-free globalism by providing a ‘grounded’ critical representation of specific sites of political, social and ecological struggle.

This year’s Asymmetry Lecture series features a number of artists who engage with this conceptual framework in their practice, drawing attention to the politics of land, histories of labour and migration, environmental degradation and cultural displacement. Each of the invited artists have produced work in a variety of media, based on sustained periods of research and fieldwork into geographically diverse sites; including a wild horse nature reserve in the Chilcotin Plateau of British Columbia, infrastructural ruins in the former Manchuria, a sugar plantation on the island of Negros in the Philippines, and a floating Chinese restaurant off the coast of Stockholm.

The invited artists will speak on a variety of themes, including the logistical challenges of gaining access to specific sites, collaborating with local governments and communities, and reflect on issues of translation, authenticity, ethnography and site-specificity.

The Asymmetry Distinguished lecture series is convened by Dr Wenny Teo, Senior Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Asian Art at The Courtauld, and Michèle Ruo-Yi Landolt, Director of the Asymmetry Art Foundation.

two people standing in front of a fence overlooking a lake and some mountains
Shen Xin, Forms Escape: Prologue, 2016, commissioned as part of Chisenhale Gallery's 21st Century programme.

Events in this series

A photograph of a wall sculpture made of painted cardboard, depicting an island with an ignited volcano. The fumes from the volcano release into the sky, which is not rendered, acting as the negative space from the sculpture. There are cloud pieces floating above the large island piece, and a sun painted green.
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Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien: Offerings for Escalante

6:00pm, 14 May 2024 | Free, booking essential

Following Asymmetry's recent collaboration with the CCA Berlin (Centre for Contemporary Arts Berlin) to present the public programme accompanying the exhibition 'Offerings for Escalante' by Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien, we are delighted to announce that...

Still from a video work depicting a group of kids in uniform (composed of a white t-shirt and orange sweatpants) dancing in a circle on a public park.
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Lee Kai Chung: Espionage and Disposable Lives

6:00pm, 30 Apr 2024 | Free, booking essential

Artist and researcher Lee Kai Chung shares excerpts from his recent moving image work exploring the roles of intelligence operatives in British Hong Kong and Guangzhou during the Cold War, weaving in themes of historical erasure, colonialism, ecology...

a screeshot from the video The Earth Turned Green
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Solar Wheels and other stories

6:00pm, 11 Mar 2024 | Free, booking essential

Shen Xin is an artist and storyteller who uses video, sound, installation and performance to tell ‘embodied stories’ about forms of inhabitance and dwelling – how we live with others in the places we are drawn to, settle in or claim as ours, as well ...

Citations