FACT presents My Garden, My Sanctuary this summer

FACT is launching a summer exhibition which seeks to immerse its audience in playful, watery worlds.

My Garden, My Sanctuary, presented by curator in residence Carrie Chan and opening tomorrow, features the work of two artists who use creative technology to tell stories of ancestry and self-discovery.

South Korean Yaloo and UK artist Sian Fan weave ‘commodified symbols’ of East Asia through their work, including K-Pop, anime, seaweed and lotus flowers.

Yaloo’s mystical installation Birthday Garden starts with a temple-like gateway which leads visitors into an underwater seaweed garden. The installation also has input from the University of Liverpool’s K-Pop Society.

Meanwhile Sian Fan’s Lotus Root combines imagery found in anime like Sailor Moon and video games with commercialised depictions of East Asia. The immersive installation challenges romanticised ideas of East Asian culture and standards of femininity found in gaming and animation.

My Garden, My Sanctuary is part of the Wood Street arts centre’s current year-long programme Radical Ancestry.

Above: Yaloo Seaweed Garden. Photo by Sarah Kim. Top: Sian Fan Spirit Corps.

Maitreyi Maheshwari, head of programme at FACT, said: “From ‘alternative museums’ of artworks that question how science and technology have shaped our understanding of the past, to the ways in which the stories and songs we inherit help define key moments in our lives, the Radical Ancestry programme is an exploration of our changing sense of self.

“This exhibition continues our journey from the past into a present in which the artists playfully remix symbols from their familial heritage with pop cultural references, creating new possibilities and hybrid identities.

“Later this year, the programme will conclude with an exhibition that proposes alternative archives and worlds in which these new identities can exist.

“Carrie has introduced us to ambitious new artists whose outlooks and practices convey the energy and the difficulties in trying to forge a new way of being.”

My Garden My Sanctuary is at FACT from July 21 to October 9.