Haoyang Wang

Hear the light brings together work by artists Chuizibor Adiele (aka Sporting Life), Anat Ben-David, Simnikiwe Buhlungu and Chen Zhe to explore ‘awakening’ as a concept and metaphor capable of introducing new possibilities and raising awareness, restructuring our futures while shaping brighter, challenging presents. Starting from the conviction that the Internet is a luxury, the exhibition is an invitation to think together about our present moment, which is full of inheritances, repetitions and comings, while questioning the notion of accessibility.

Chuizibor Adiele contributes with a sonic triptych, a journey across sound, music and noise in which each element references the other. Using ‘imagination-technology’, Anat Ben-David in turn reimagines space and time. Simnikiwe Buhlungu’s collection of narrative sonic material invites collective action, while Chen Zhe extends daily transient moments via audio tracks and recording into psychological experiences.

Both as a theme and impetus, ‘awakening’ is a powerful concept because of the action and repetition it implies. In our age, it is strongly connected with political, social and environmental movements striving for change. We ask: does this notion hold the same potential to transform that the period known as Enlightenment did? Or that literature like Kafka's Metamorphosis held? What can a nonhuman perspective of insects’, plants’ and planets’ awakening reveal in an unfamiliar world? How can cycles of suffering and awakening relate to the unfolding events of the post-information age?

With 2021 as a backdrop, ‘Hear the Light’ is also an experiment in thinking about the question of connectivity. Are we really all online? In a world of unreliable or slow connections the only way to ensure that information is readily available to semi-connected or disconnected audiences is through the distribution of a physical copy. Alongside the idea of the USB as an offline copy of the exhibition, there is the USB as an artefact, allowing audiences to revisit the exhibition again at different times and places.

‘Hear the Light’ takes place 11 –17 May 2021 online and offline. The exhibition is curated by Ludovica Bulciolu, David Lisbon, Kechun Qin, Hyeona Shin, Haoyang Wang, Shiying Wang and Duruo Zheng from the MA Curating Contemporary Art Programme as of the Graduate Projects 2021, Royal College of Art, London, in partnership with Gasworks.

Haoyang Wang is an independent curator and a co-founder of Cub_ism_ Art space, Shanghai. She insists on transforming the language in between the art and audiences. In her curatorial practices, she emphasizes on artists and their works and eradicates the stereotypes in different environment, expanding art between individual and social conditions. She wants to make contribution on Chinese contemporary art environment, creating more opportunities and collaborations with emerging artists.

Studying in Western countries really influences her critical thinking and inspired her graduate dissertation,Under Creolization: Language Transition and Cultural Transition in Curatorial Practice. She illustrated the relationships entangled with artists, institutions, artworks and audiences and how their cultural background, especially in art, can drives their perspectives for understanding the language behind the exhibition. By analyzing some trans-continental exhibition cases, she unties the nods that art has its own language for audiences to understand.

As for her graduate project, Haoyang co-curated online exhibition Hear the Light in partnership with Gasworks. This exhibition expands the daily action “awakening” into a philosophical thinking process. The repetitive and simple activities questioning the connectivity in our life and rising awareness and consciousness around us.

Haoyang has her first independent curating exhibition “Embedded, Embodied Beings” in Cub_ism_ Art Space, Shanghai, 2021, which generated a perspective on how contemporary artists create the existentialism within their artworks. She also co-curated exhibition RCA x Future Lab, Shanghai, 2020, which is a group show contained with seventy-five artists from RCA. Before attending the RCA, she studied Art History at Boston University in the U.S.

Landing page for Hear the Light

This exhibition expands the daily action “awakening” into a philosophical thinking process. The repetitive and simple activities questioning the connectivity in our life and rising awareness and consciousness around us. The project brings together work by artists Chuizibor Adiele (aka Sporting Life), Anat Ben-David, Simnikiwe Buhlungu and Chen Zhe to explore ‘awakening’ as a concept and metaphor capable of introducing new possibilities and raising awareness, restructuring our futures while shaping brighter, challenging presents. Starting from the conviction that the Internet is a luxury, the exhibition is an invitation to think together about our present moment, which is full of inheritances, repetitions and comings, while questioning the notion of accessibility.‘Hear the Light’ takes place 11 –17 May 2021 online and offline. The exhibition is curated by Ludovica Bulciolu, David Lisbon, Kechun Qin, Hyeona Shin, Haoyang Wang, Shiying Wang and Duruo Zheng from the MA Curating Contemporary Art Programme as part of the Graduate Projects 2021, Royal College of Art, London, in partnership with Gasworks.