Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-) is a long poem/script, soundwork, experimental live assemblage, and immersive installation with video, sound, texts and textiles.
Centenary was originally commissioned by Create London for the Becontree Centenary programme, commemorating the opening of the Becontree Estate in the London borough of Dagenham and Barking. An ambitious post-war project designed to provide ‘homes fit for heroes’, Becontree was once the largest public housing project in Europe, and remains the largest council estate in the UK. With around 29,000 houses built between 1921 and 1934, Becontree came to house c.100,000 people, including those displaced by the East End slum clearances – the Chinese in Limehouse (the site of London’s ‘first Chinatown’) among them.
Taking Becontree as a point of entry and departure, Centenary alludes to histories of Chinese migration behind or beyond prevailing narratives. Spanning three centuries of movement triggered by colonial expansion, imperialism and systems of indenture, the work touches on Hong Kong Chinese in post-war Britain, the 1997 handover, as well as the artist’s experience growing up in a council house on the Essex–London border.
Centenary was first recorded and premiered on ResonanceFM as a broadcast and live stream (2022), coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover. It was subsequently presented as s sound installation at esea contemporary (2023), and performed as an experimental live assemblage for Asymmetry Foundation (2025). For Whitechapel Gallery’s 125th anniversary programme, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) has been significantly expanded with original music, Chinese translation, and images from The London Archives (2026).
Asymmetry International Symposium Live assemblage with video, sound, spoken word (keynote performance) The Courtauld Institute of Art, London 25 April 2025
Speaking Nearby 4-channel sound installation (project space) esea contemporary, Manchester 21 July – 29 October 2023
ResonanceFM Radio broadcast (Clear Spot) 1 July 2022
Credits
Centenary/Centenaries (2022/26-) original long poem and spoken word recording, 34 mins; multimedia installation with video, sound, 36 mins 50 secs, looped
Written, directed, edited and produced by susan pui san lok / susan lok pui san
Read by David KS Tse and Crystal LK Yu
Translated by Koel CHU Ka Kiu
Original music by Alex Chang and Adam Forman
Voices recorded and mixed by Cameron Griffin
Additional sound mixing by Oliver Payne
Production assistance by Kirsty White
Commissioned by Create London, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund
Expanded for Whitechapel Gallery, and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
All images sourced from the London Picture Archive and reproduced courtesy of The London Archives and Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London Corporation.
Production Stills
susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress), 2022/26-, production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress), 2022/26-, production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.susan pui san lok, Centenary/Centenaries (in progress) (2022/26-), production still. All images copyright of the City of London Corporation, reproduced by kind permission of The London Archives, courtesy of the London Picture Archive and Guildhall Art Gallery.
SPSL 