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Exploring Empathy Project: GMT+8

Written byQi Qi
Published date 15 July 2022

Initiated by Dr Lee Campbell, the Empathy Project aims to discuss the empathetic engagement that practitioners have with the various ‘stuffs’ that constitute artistic practices, ranging from objects to forms and processes to people.

As a curator-to-be, the project inspires me to think beyond my own subjectivity – to become a mediator between artworks, spaces and spectators. To me, empathy involves investigating the highly controlled context of the modernist gallery – the White Cube – where an ‘idealised’ space was created and the Eyes of audiences were disembodied.

According to Brian O’Doherty, the “unshadowed, white, clean, artificial” properties of the idealised exhibition space banish the Souls and Eyes of spectators and isolate artworks from reality. One thing quite ironic to me is that the seemingly empty interior of the modernist gallery does not eliminate physical distractions to allow observations and reflections, but rather imposes some kind of cultural authority by disembodying their Eyes.

Being a curator, empathy is more than realising the authority that the White Cube has established over its spectators. It is necessary to re-think the ways in which an exhibition can be arranged to embrace the Eyes and Souls – that is, how to transform the conventional viewing experience through curatorial practice?

I think one of the ways to disrupt the passive context of the modernist gallery is to re-introduce Life back into the space. Movement, particularly the active movement of the spectators within an arranged exhibition space, evokes a sense of dynamism that subverts the meticulous principles of the White Cube.

Hence engaging with the spectators through spatial arrangement is of great importance to me. My previous projects include Curatorial Practice in a Web 2.0 World - Art in Times of COVID-19, 2020 (Figure.1), where I curated a conversation-based exhibition on the Chinese ‘twitter’ called Weibo. I think the Internet, or the online platform, evolves empathy by creating an accessible virtual space for many. Although there is no ‘spatial design’ in the traditional sense for an online exhibition, the democratic nature of the Internet frees galleries and museums from the restrictions of materiality and opens up avenues for spectator participation.

exhibition poster — **Upcoming Exhibition Poster, GMT+8: The Diaspora of Chinese Art and Design Students in London**

GMT+8: The Diaspora of Chinese Art and Design Students in London (Figure.2) is an upcoming group exhibition that I am curating in collaboration with a few of my MA Curating and Collections fellows, which includes works by Rui Li, Baihui Lin, Jiao Shi, Lily Wei, Yaoxi Wei, Tian Rossana Wong, Yingyi Yang, Miner Zeng, Junchang Zhang, and Shengjia Zhang. The exhibition focuses on the idea of diaspora in contemporary context and the creative journey of Chinese art and design students in London. Criss-crossing the Eurasia of 8 time zones, it explores and celebrates the interrelationship between China and Britain in art during the era of globalisation.

The exhibition will take place at the Triangle Space, Chelsea College of Arts, since the peculiar shape of the space provides the opportunity for an active viewing experience through the spatial design of the display. The spectators are invited to engage with the arranged space to feel the ambivalent emotions that artists who were born into Chinese culture had when came to London. The arrangement of smaller triangle spaces within the venue will also symbolise the “multiplicity”, or the multiple aspects of cultural exchanges and identities explored in the exhibition.

The GMT+8: The Diaspora of Chinese Art and Design Students in London exhibition will be open from 11:00AM – 6:00PM, 23 July to 31 July at the Triangle Exhibition Space, Chelsea College of Arts, 16 John Islip St, London, SW1P 4JU.

Exploring Empathy Project: GMT+8

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