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, and site-specific drawings and text works. Multi-stranded and open-ended, related works often fold and interweave, to interrupt and disrupt archives and amnesias, in diaspora and translation.

Recent exhibitions and commissions include REWIND/REPLAY (2022-23), a multichannel site-specific installation with sound, video projections and tape, part of Rewinding Internationalism (Netwerk Aalst, Belgium; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Villa Arson, Nice); Found Cities, Lost Objects, curated by Lubaina Himid (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Southampton City Art Gallery, Royal Academy West, Bristol, Leeds Art Gallery, 2022-24); and Centenary (2022), a long poem/soundwork/short film, part of the Becontree Centenary programme (Create London).

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS / PROJECTS

Centenary commissioned by Create London for the Becontree Centenary (2022); 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

Rewinding Internationalism, Netwerk Aalst, Belgium (2022), Van Abbemuseum, NL (2022) and Villa Arson, Nice (2023); Found Cities, Lost Objects, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, UK (2022), Southampton City Art Gallery, UK (2023), Royal Western Academy, Bristol, UK (2023), Leeds City Art Gallery, UK (2024); 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, multiple in 7 parts / digital edition and video); RoCH Fans & Legends (2017, 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); and NEWS (2005, artist book).

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

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 HistoryArt 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).

REWIND / REPLAY (2022)

susan pui san lok, REWIND / REPLAY (2022), site-specific installation with sound, video, tape, performance. Photo: Iwein de Keyzer.

seven x seven (2021)

susan pui san lok, Ascendants Descendant / Descendants Ascendants (2021), site-specific wallpaper, and Witches Rise (2021), installation with horseshoes. South Block, Glasgow. Installation view. Photo: Matthew Arthur Williams.
susan pui san lok, seven x seven, 2021, single-channel video, 26’ 26”.

A COVEN A GROVE A STAND (2019)

SPSL_ACOVENAGROVEASTAND-Firstsite_2019_DA_0399__Photo by Douglas Atfield
Above: susan pui san lok, A COVEN A GROVE A STAND, Firstsite, 2019. Various works, installation view. Photo: Douglas Atfield.

Below: susan pui san lok, 2019, Score for Voices, 7-panel text, limited print edition / unlimited photocopies.
SPSL_Score for Voices_2019

THROUGH THE GATE / an(g)archivery (2016-18)

SPSL_AN(G)ARCHIVERY_.2018_Still001
susan pui san lok, ‘Through the Gate / an(g)archivery‘, 2018, essay/2-channel video (still).
Deviant Practice research residency and e-publication, Van Abbemuseum.

DIASPORA PAVILION (2017)

susan pui san lok, Untitled (Pavilion), 2017, installation with shimmer and lighting filter. Diaspora Pavilion, Palazzo Pisani Santa Marina, Venice, 13 May to 26 November 2017.
Above/below: susan pui san lok, Untitled (Pavilion), 2017, installation with shimmer and lighting filter. Diaspora Pavilion, Palazzo Pisani Santa Marina, Venice, 13 May to 26 November 2017

2017 Golden @ Venice - 225

RoCH FANS & LEGENDS (2015-17)

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Above/below: susan pui san lok, RoCH Fans and Legends, 2013-17, various works.
Solo exhibitions at QUAD, UK, 2015, and CFCCA (now ESEA Contemporary), UK, 2016.
_MG_7847-edited

FIVE/SIX WOMEN (2012) / MAKING WAYS (2015)

AVs-5Women-B27-SL
Above: susan pui san lok, Six Women, 2015, series of drawings
Below: susan pui san lok, Making Ways, 2012, visual essay / eight collages

LIGHTNESS (2012)

Above/below: susan pui san lok, Lightness, 2012. Multi-channel sound and video installation.
Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella for ‘Everything Flows’, De La Warr Pavilion, 2012.

FASTER, HIGHER (2008)

susan pui san lok, Faster, Higher, 2008
Above/below: susan pui san lok, Faster, Higher, 2008, 5-channel installation.
Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and BFI Southbank Gallery.

GOLDEN (2005-ongoing)

susan pui san lok, Golden (Lessons), 2006 (installation view, Beaconsfield)
Above/below: susan pui san lok, Golden, 2005-ongoing, various works.
Solo exhibitions at Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester and Beaconsfield Contemporary Art, London, 2006.
Re-staged for the 1st Asia Biennial/5th Guangzhou Triennial, 2015-16, and Diaspora Pavilion, Venice, 2017
susan pui san lok, Years, 2006 (still)
All texts and images © susan pui san lok unless otherwise stated