SPSL

susan pui san lok < 駱佩珊 > ~~susan~~ lok pui san is an artist and writer based in London.

Projects range from immersive installations with moving image, sound and occasional performance, to artist books/multiples, scripts/scores, site-specific drawings and texts. Multi-stranded and open-ended works often fold and interweave, aiming to interrupt and disrupt archives and amnesias, in diaspora and translation.

Ongoing projects include: Re Moves (2017-), a long-form film poem featuring the work of Keith Piper, Lubaina Himid, David Medalla, Jananne Al-Ani, Conroy/Sanderson, and Phaophanit/Oboussier; and Centenary (2022-), a long poem/soundwork and expanding archival film installation-in-progress, evoking entangled narratives of Chinese migration via HK/UK. Forthcoming exhibitions include Backyard Biennial, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2026).

Solo shows and commissions include Glasgow International Festival (2021), Firstsite (2019), CfCCA (now esea contemporary, 1996, 2006, 2026), QUAD (2015), De La Warr Pavilion (2012), BFI Southbank Gallery (2008), Beaconsfield (2006) (all UK), and Montreal Arts Interculturels (CA). Group exhibitions include Rewinding Internationalism (2022-23) at Netwerk Aalst (BE), Van Abbemuseum (NL), Villa Arson (FR); Found Cities, Lost Objects (2022-24) an Arts Council England touring show curated by Lubaina Himid OBE, at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Southampton City Art Gallery, Royal Academy West, Bristol and Leeds Art Gallery; and Diaspora Pavilion (2017) at the 57^th Venice Biennale. They have also presented work at He Xiangning Museum, Guangdong Museum of Art, Hong Kong Art Centre, Beijing 798, Shanghai Duolun MoMA, Gallery4A, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, SITE Sante Fe, and the Hayward Gallery, London.

VIMEO / SOUNDCLOUD / CV

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS / PROJECTS

Centenary (2022-ongoing), originally commissioned by Create London for the Becontree Centenary and presented as a sound installation at ESEA Contemporary (2023); seven x seven solo show, South Block and Briggait Project Spaces, Glasgow, curated by Mother Tongue for Glasgow International Festival (2021); A COVEN A GROVE A STAND at Firstsite, Colchester, part of New Geographies (2019); RoCH Fans & Legends at CFCCA, Manchester and QUAD, Derby (2015); Lightness (2012), commissioned by Film & Video Umbrella (FVU) and De La Warr Pavilion for Everything Flows; Faster, Higher (2008), commissioned by FVU and BFI Southbank, with solo shows at the Gallery at Winchester Discovery Centre (2012) and MAI, Montreal (2014); DIY Ballroom/Live (2007-08), a Cornerhouse / BBC Bigger Picture national touring commission; and Golden (2005-ongoing), an Arts Council England and AHRC-funded project, including exhibitions, residencies, a publication, live events, and commissions for Beaconsfield, London, Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, Guangdong Museum of Art, and Venice.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Backyard Biennial, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2026, forthcoming); Rewinding Internationalism, Villa Arson, Nice (2023), Van Abbemuseum, NL (2022) and Netwerk Aalst, Belgium (2022); Found Cities, Lost Objects, Leeds City Art Gallery, UK (2024), Royal Western Academy, Bristol, UK (2023), Southampton City Art Gallery, UK (2023), Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, UK (2022); Working: Women in Art Practice, He Xiangning Museum, Shenzhen (2021-22); Common Third, Copperfield Gallery, London (2018); ~~Diaspora ~~Pavilion~~~~, Wolverhampton Art Gallery (2018); Presence – A Window into Contemporary Chinese Art, St George’s Hall, Liverpool (2018); FLOW, Asia-Art-Activism, Raven Row, London (2018); Diaspora Pavilion and Sonic Soundings, Venice (2017); China Remix, Indiana University, Bloomington (2017); 1st Asia Biennial & 5th Guangzhou Triennial (2015-16); The Global Archive, Hanmi Gallery (2013); Everything Flows, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill (2012); AND Festival, Holden Gallery, Manchester (2012); March 2012, SITE Sante Fe (2012); How We Became Metadata, University of Westminster Gallery, London (2010); Hit the Ground, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle (2009); Artist in the Archive, Cornerhouse (2008); Cruel/Loving Bodies, Hong Kong Arts Centre (2006); Reassurance, Chinese Arts Centre (2006)and SPACETriangle, London (2005); Lightsilver, Beaconsfield (2005); Tsuyoshi Osawa, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2004); Cruel/Loving Bodies, Shanghai Duolun MoMA (2004) and Beijing 798 Space (2004); The Translator’s Notes, Cafe Gallery Projects (2003); New Releases Gallery 4a, Australia (2001); Cities on the Move,Hayward Gallery (1999); and DEAL, 198 Gallery (1998).

ARTIST BOOKS / MULTIPLES

REWIND/REPLAY (2022), concertina script/score, 38 panels; seven x seven (2021), print multiple in 7 parts and unlimited digital edition; Score for Voices (2019), 7-panel text, limited print and unlimited photocopies; RoCH Fans & Legends (2017), unlimited freee-book; RoCH Fan (2015), concertina multiple, 90 panels; Making Ways (2012) series of risograph prints; Faster, Higher (2009), monograph; Golden (Notes) (2007), artist book; NEWS (2005), artist book.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

‘Transforming Collections?‘ and ‘Neon Rice Field: Towards a Microhistory of Acquisition and Interpretation‘ in Tate Papers no.36, 2025; ‘REWIND/REPLAY: susan pui san lok in conversation with Michael Karabinos‘ in Open Archief: Artistic Reuse of Archives (E de Graaf et al eds., 2024); ‘Circling the Archive: Didem Pekün and susan pui san lok/lok pui san in conversation with Nick Aikens‘ in Rewinding Internationalism (N Aikens ed., 2023); ‘Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier: Three Decades, Four Moments‘, an extended interview in ‘Remapping British Art’, Art History (S Boyce and D Price eds., 2021; ‘Tiohtià:kee, Tāmaki Makaurau – somewhere over the under, beneath the between‘, short essay in GAX: Ngā Tai o te Ao: Global Tides (A Chang, C Huddleston, J Randerson eds., 2021, St Paul St Publishing, AUT/GAX, A/P/A Institute, NYU); contribution to ‘Decolonising Art History’ Art History (C Grant and D Price eds., 2020); ‘between the voice between the words between the work between us‘, a visual/text essay in ‘Voice as Form‘, Oxford Art Journal (P Corey and W Teo eds, 2020); co-editor and contributor to Conceptualism: Intersectional Readings, International Framings (N Aikens, SPSL and S Orlando eds., 2019, Van Abbemuseum); ‘We Will Be‘ a visual/poetic text for The Place Is Here (N Aikens and E Robles eds., 2019, Sternberg); ‘Through the Gate/an(g)archivery‘ a video/essay for Deviant Practice (N Aikens ed., 2018, Van Abbemuseum); and visual/text essays for Contesting British Chinese Culture (A Thorpe and D Yeh eds., 2018, Palgrave Macmillan) and the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (2016, special issue, F Koch and RO Lopes, eds).