Social Assembly as a (Research) Method

Reconsidering research as a process of searching towards rather than a quest for definitive answers, Sophia Yadong Hao, Director and Principal Curator of Cooper Gallery and Rae-Yen Song will journey through the exhibition space and think through its use of social assembly as a method of creating and curating contemporary art. Together they will explore the exhibition's potential as an experimental laboratory for shaping future politics and how collaboration and collective engagements can be key components of this approach.

Access

This event will be BSL interpreted by Yvonne Strain.

Sophia Yadong Hao

Sophia Yadong Hao is a curator, writer and editor. Working internationally, Hao’s practice utilises a rhizomatic approach to situate the curatorial as a mode of critical inquiry directly engaging with culture and ‘the political’ as an open question.

Notable curatorial projects include NOTES on a return (2009), a re-contextualisation of performance art from 1980s Britain; Studio Jamming: Artists’ Collaborations in Scotland (2014), Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? (2016-2017) which evoked the ethos of feminism for an alternative politics in culture and society; and The Ignorant Art School: Five Sit-ins Towards Creative Emancipation (2021-2025) a five-phase exhibition programme examining histories and future possibilities of creative pedagogy as a radical emancipatory praxis.

Hao is founding editor of the art journal &labels and digital publication What I am Reading Now… Hao’s publications include Of Other Spaces: Where Does Gesture Become Event? (2019), Hubs and Fictions: On Current Art and Imported Remoteness (2016) A CUT A SCRATCH A SCORE (2015) and NOTES on a return (2010).

This event is part of the live programme for life-bestowing cadaverous soooooooooooooooooooot a research exhibition collated by Rae-Yen Song 宋瑞渊.