Yeu-Lai Mo
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Yeu-Lai Mo's PhD research project
Archiving the disappearing. A history of The British Chinese Artists’ Association (BCAA) in London and the Chinese Art scene from 1997 to 2010.
This is an important interdisciplinary research project documenting a fragile history providing access to the early work of British Chinese and East Asian diasporic artists in the UK.
A practice led research project collaborating with key artists and stakeholders as witnesses to the advocacy work whilst working as an artist and curator at The British Chinse Artist’s Association (BCAA) from 1998-2002. Currently no formal documentation exists, only verbal histories and in the personal archives of artists.
'Upstairs' (2024), Video projection, black mesh, wallpaper
This project is an attempt to gather early documentation into one place and create a new and original archive. It will reactivate valuable key moments in history where there was an artists’ movement with support from the Arts Council England that gave agency to a marginalised group.
My research will also analyse the critical discourse around issues of representation and the historical links Chinese artists had with the wider Black Arts movement. It will look at how effective the Arts Council’s role in its advocacy work during the 2000’s for these groups and what the implications are now.
Through this project a new ‘living archive’ will be produced, collating documentation materials of key exhibitions of significant contribution, including the artists’ networks and artworks.
The research methods will be centred around my art practice, where I will make an installation to create a temporary museum and an environment where key research questions will be posed in the space, to prompt discussions and activate critical analysis. These activities will be documented and the final work will be presented as an installation and exhibited publicly.