My curatorial and research practice is located at the intersection of art, activism and education, with an interest in archives, digital modalities, histories, feminist, queer and alternative knowledges, collective practices, and solidarity. As an independent curator and co-director of Something Human (SH 2012-2020) a curatorial initiative based in London, I have presented exhibition and live art projects across the UK and Europe, featuring artists working in relation to Asia. In 2017 SH launched the pioneering Southeast Asia Performance Collection (SAPC) with over 27000 digital items that represent 50 artists from the region at the Live Art Development Agency’s Study Room.
Since 2018, I led Asia-Art-Activism (AAA), an interdisciplinary research network that has presented a programme of presentations, workshops, mini-residences and festivals that complicate notions of ‘Asia’. AAA is a 2020 recipient of the European Cultural Found’s Culture of Solidarity grant for Tools to Transform, a project focused on creating resources for Asian and diaspora organising. I am also the instigating council member of Asia Forum that was launched in 2021, and presented a one-day conference at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia alongside the opening of the 59th Venice Biennale.
As a researcher, I write for various art platforms and publications, and am co-editor of Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia’s 2019 guest issue: Archives; and its 2022 guest issue on performativity.
SELECTED WORK IN CURATING AND PRODUCING
2022 Pera+Flora+Fauna, Port Perak, official collateral event at the 59 Esposizione d’Arte at La Biennale di Venezia 2022, Archivi della Misericordia, 23 April – 27 November, Associate curator.
2021-22 Asia Forum, presenting digital gatherings in 2021, and a programme during the Venice Biennale in 2022, funded by the Bagri Foundaton and Something Human, instigating council member.
2021-22 Future Ages Will Wonder, 22 October 2021 – 22 February 2022, exhibition and public programme for FACT Liverpool’s year long inquiry, Radical Ancestry, Curator-in-Residence
2021-22 cruising the cloud computing October 2021 – February 22, UK-Vietnam queer exchange programme of workshops, iwith QueerForever! Bau-Bau AIR
2021-22 Noguchi: Resonances, digital programme curated in response to Noguchi, the survey exhibition celebrating Isamu Noguchi at the Barbican, Oct 2021 – Jan 2022, Digital Curator-in-Residence.
2021 QueerAsias: Virtual Cartographies, digital playlist for the London, Asia,
Art, Worlds conference, organised by the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art Studies and Yale University, curator
2021 Tools to Transform, funded by European Cultural Foundation’s Culture of Solidarity Fund, Co-editor/Co-ordinator at Asia-Art-Activism
2021 A Viewing Room, screening programme and public event, Korean Cultural Centre UK, co-curator
2021 A New Season of Care, digital programme of workshops, performance and podcast, funded by National Arts Council Singapore, curator
2020 Till We Meet Again IRL, Best wishes, Asia-Art-Activism, digital exhibition, performance and screening programme
2020 Tracing the Circle, audio-visual project for British Film Institute & British Council, Japan, The Light Surgeons, co-producer
2019 Archive-in-residence “Southeast Asia Performance Collection” exhibition and Pathways of Performativity: symposium and archive exhibition on performance from Southeast Asia, Haus der Kunst, Munich, co-curator
2019 PASAR (Post-Asian School of Alternative Rites) at The Palace of Ritual, Venice, Palazzo Dona Brusa, curator
2019 Being Present, live art programme for Speech Acts: Reflection-Imagination-Repetition, Manchester Art Gallery & & digital live art cover collaboration for British Art Studies 13, Paul Mellon Centre, Curator
2018 – present Asia-Art-Activism ’s multidisciplinary public programme. I led on 86% of public programming and 96% of its fundraising (including sharing sessions, mini residencies, SEA Currents mini festival, Oceans*A*Part food workshop, AAA Radio, Being Present, Till We Meet Again IRL, Making Time/Tools to Transform, digital Zoom-Lucks)
2018 UnAuthorised Medium, exhibition and programme 15 September – 18 November 2018, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, NL, curator.
2018 Border Stew: De-colon-ising Art & Learning, food colloquium, curator
2017 MAP (Movement x Archive x Performance) 1: WATERWAYS Venice, 2: Communities and 3: Archiving “Asia”, performance and symposium in Venice and London, and the launch of the Southeast Asian performance collection at the Live Art Development Agency, lead curator for Something Human
2017 Curating Radical Futures, a colloquium commissioned by Outset and Arts Council England, Tate Modern, curator
2017 History Lessons: Fluid Records, a performance programme in collaboration with Iniva at the South London Gallery, curator
2017 MOVEMENTS: Southeast Asia, the inaugural postgraduate research conference at SOAS, organising committee
2017 Reframing the Archive, a programme of moving image works and symposium in partnership with SOAS, Centre of South East Asian Studies and The Asia Projector, London, UK, co-organiser
2016 Krisis exhibition and public programme in partnership with the Nottingham Trent University and Bonington Gallery, and CCLAP 2016, Nottingham, UK, co-curator
2015 From East to the BARBICAN, live art programme presented in partnership with Fish Island Labs and the Barbican, London, UK. Funded by Arts Council England, National Arts Council Singapore, Singapore International Foundation, The Cooperative Funeralcare, Town Hall Hotel, co-curator
2015 London Calling, for reception at Eden Hall, residence of the British High Commissioner in Singapore, for the Prime Ministerial delegation of Great Britain to Singapore, curator consultant
2015 EX PARTE, exhibition and public programme, London, UK, commissioned by the Singapore Tourism Board as an official partner event for the travelling SG50 showcase, Singapore: Inside Out to London, curator
2014 CCLAP2014 (Cross-cultural Live Art Project) a 2-day symposium of presentations, performances and screenings that brought together live art practices from UK, Europe and Southeast Asia, The Proud Archivist, London UK. Supported by NAC Singapore, co-curator
2014 Hold Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand, exhibition of contemporary Southeast Asian art, presented at the Embassy Tea Gallery, London, UK. Supported by NAC Singapore and SEA ArtsFest, curator
2014 – 2016 MOVE WITH(OUT) Berlin, Rome, London, Belgrade, Venice, Budapest, Skopje, Singapore & Lisbon, a traveling curatorial performance by Something Human presented in partnership with Emersen Gallery (Berlin), Galleria D’arte Vista (Rome) Enclave Projects (London), Remont Gallery (Belgrade), 3D Gallery (Mestre), Officina delle Zattere (Venice), FFS, the Studio of Young Photographers (Hungary) City of Skopje, Dominium Hub (Skopje), Aliwal Art Centre (Singapore) European Cultural Foundation and Roundabout LX (Lisbon).
2013 – 2014 SEA ArtsFilm & SEA ArtsShorts, a programme of feature and short film screenings presented at SEA ArtsFest 2013 & 2014, curator
SELECTED EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH & ART WRITING
2022 Southeast of Now: Directions in Modern and Contemporary Art in Asia, special issue: Performativity, co-editor
2022 “Rice Brewing Sisters Club”, ArtReview, October 2022
2022 “Ontological performativity of an animistic world,” for SEON 2022
2022 Asia-Art-Activism: Experiments in Care and Collective Disobedience, co-editor and contributor AAA Press 2022
2021 A slow incantation: collective spell-casting, cosmologies and calendars,” Tactical Magic, ed. Kerry Guinan
2021 “Live Art: Futures,” Essay commission for the Live Art Sector review, Live Art Development Agency
2020 “Winter Comes Early,” Art Review, 24 December 2020
2020 “Nikhil Chopra in conversation with Catherine Wood,” review for Tate
2020 “Mapping Suwa in the digital,” review for R3 City-scape: Suwa
2020 “And we breathe,” review for GAX 2020 Global Tides
2020 “Taking space, holding space: curating-as-organizing in the time of need for solidarity at Asia-Art-Activism,” On the future and artist-run spaces, Club Solo
2019 Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia, special issue: Archives, co-editor
2019 “Gudskul,” ArtReview Asia Winter 2019
2019 “Taking Space for Asian Diaspora Narratives,” British Art Studies 13
2019 “Cross Talk: a halfway point, a sidebar reflection,” 4A Papers
2019 “Speech Acts,” Art Asia Pacific
2018 “Things could have been different, that would have been possible”: the imminent ‘potentiality” in Larry Achiampong’s Relic Traveller, Jerwood Catalogue essay commission
2018 “Speech Acts,” Art Asia Pacific
2018 “Shamanistic Artistry,” on Ghost 2561, Art Asia Pacific
2018 “Uganda Stories,” Art Asia Pacific
2018 “Temporalities Disrupted: Report on Territories Disrupted conference, MMCA Seoul” for Tate Research Centre: Asia
2018 “Dear Ada” curatorial response to Ada Hao, for Iniva
2017 “Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies,” Art Asia Pacific
2016 “A Stitch in Time,” report for Contact Point at Tate Research Centre: Asia
2016 “A Collage of Constellations,” report on Black Artists and Modernism conference for Iniva. Also published on C&, 7 November 2016
2016 “Empire of Whom,” essay on Artist and Empire at Tate Britain, Art Asia Pacific
2016 “Brothers in Art,” profile on the Le Brothers, Art Asia Pacific
2015 “The Buddhist Bug: The Performative, Photographic and Moving Image”, catalogue essay for Anida Yoeu Ali’s The Buddhist Bug series.
2015 “Artist Provocateur,” profile on Anida Yoeu Ali, Art Asia Pacific
TEACHING
2018 – 2023 Associate Lecturer, “Producing the Body: Practice, Place and Politics,” for Critical Studies at BA Fine Arts, Central St Martins (curriculum includes performance from Southeast / East Asia)
2020-2023 Associate lecturer, Writing and Curating, KASK & Conservatorium: Curatorial Studies
2021-2022 Associate co-lecturer, “Radical Joy” for MFA Groups, Royal College of Art
2020 Creator of “Archiving art in Asia,” digital lecture series, British Council Vietnam
2017, 2018, 2022 Guest Lecturer, MA Asian Art, Sothebys’s Institute of Art: Cambodian Performance Art, Thai Contemporary Art, and Curating networks and practices in Cambodia and Vietnam.
1999 – 2002 Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London and Middlesex University.
SELECTED EXAMPLES OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
2020-22 Guest lectures: Carnegie Mellon University, Dublin Technological University, University of Minnesota , Goldsmiths University, Royal College of Art, Rutgers University, Westminster University, LASALLE University of the Arts,
2022 Digital Archives from the Southeast Asian Art World, National Gallery Singapore
2022 Keynote: Diasporic Worldings, Art Nomads—Karvansarai
2022 What kind of we could we be?: Collective thinking by Collectives, documenta15
2022 GAX 2022: Indigenous Art and Archives: Care and the Global Community
2022 Noguchi Conversations: Friendship & Community / Collaborations & Partnerships, 17 & 20 January, Barbican
2021 Conversation with Jesse Jones, I Never Promised You a Dystopia, Kilkenny Arts Office
2021 “Decolonising pedagogies,” Global Art Forum / Rutgers University, discussant
2021 “Bodies of Occupation,” with Lyno Vuth, Khvay Samnang, University of Nottingham, discussant
2021 “what gives, what holds, when things fall apart,” La Sala, panel speaker
2021 “Politics of food,” podcast with Arts Catalyst, SIFA
2021 “Itinerant Imaginaries”, Creating Interference, Westminster University
2021 Launch of Tools to Transform, Asia Art Activism, speaker
2021 Community Responses to Covid 19, workshop participant
2021 “The Bang Straws” with Michelle Williams Gamaker, Stuart Croft Foundation, discussant
2021 “Not this Future,” with Youngsook Choi, Heart of Glass, discussant
2021 Podcast, “Working together as a driving force,” Club Solo
2020 Syllabus V, Iniva, workshop facilitator
2020 Chisenhale Art Place, workshop facilitator
2020 “Proximate Currents,” Iniva
2020 “Curating-as-organising,” Substation, Singapore
2020 “Proximate Currents”: Online Reading Group on archives and knowledge, Iniva
2020 “David Blandy vs Annie Jael Kwan,” RCA2020, Royal College of Art
2019 “Curating-as-organising” at Activism and Diaspora: American Art Histories, Smithsonian American Museum Art Museum, NYU Washington
2019 Skin the Game, Diverse Actions, Manchester
2019 “Southeast Asia Performance Collection,” National Art Gallery, Malaysia,
2019 “Asia-Art-Activism: making collective space,” Green Papaya, Philippines and Gudskul, Jakarta, Indonesia
2019 DIY Workshop: Potluck Stories, Tramway, Glasgow
2019 “Gameplay as collaborative creativity in the Finding Fanon Trilogy,” AUTO Conference, Royal College of Art
2019 “Sim Chi Yin,” in conversation at performingborders LIVE, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts
2019 Artist Talk – Genetic Automata, Arts Catalyst
2018 AAA Sharing Session: Sim Chi Yin and Noel Ed De Leon
2018 “Contaminating archives; Unauthorised medium,” at Creating Interference
2018 “Curating-as-research” as part of the 2018 NYU Global Asia/Pacific Art Exchange and Working Sessions, Central St Martins
2018 Stuart Hall Research Network “The Mask of Insanity” with Ada Hao
2017 Diaspora Pavilion, curator tour for Outset
2017 “Sonia Boyce, David Medalla”, Black Arts & Modernism, Stuart Hall Library
2017 “Trust Me, I’m an Artist: DNA Ancestry Testing,” Arts Catalyst
2017 “All Channels Open: Resolutions,” Wysing Arts Centre
2016 “Conditions for Performance,” Java Arts, Cambodia
2016 “How can live art engage with social issues in the community?” Human Rights Festival
2015 “MOVE WITH (OUT)” connecting cities, Something Human, Kula, Skopje
2015 “Surveillance and live art – Something Human at the Terminal”, Royal College of Art
RESIDENCIES
2021-2022 Noguchi Digital Curator-in-Residence, Barbican
2020-2022 Curator-in-residence, FACT Liverpool
2020 Curatorial research residency at Tokyo Arts and Space
2019 Curatorial Residency at the Helsinki International Artist Programme
2017 Stuart Hall Library research residency
2016 Curatorial Research Residency at JavaArts Arts Lab, with the support of the Artists’ International Development Fund (British Council/Arts Council England) and Capability Grant (NAC Singapore)
AWARDS
2021 ACE Developing Your Creative Practice: Curatorial Pedagogies
2020 Culture of Solidarity award for Asia-Art-Activism from the European Cultural Foundation
2019 Diverse Actions Leadership Award 2019-2020
2017 Outset / Arts Council England Contemporary Art Commission
2017 Outset / Arts Council England Contemporary Art Research Travel Grant
2017 Tate Research Centre: Asia Travel Grant for MMCA conference in Korea
2016 Selection for International Curators Forum, “Beyond the Frame”
2016 Artists’ International Development Fund (British Council/ACE)
EDUCATION AND FURTHER TRAINING
2018 MA (Distinction) in History of Art and/or Archaeology, SOAS, University of London
1996 BA Hons. Drama and Theatre Arts (2:1), Goldsmiths, University of London
Annie Jael Kwan 