Artist Talk: Marcos Kueh — Love, Labour, and Cultural Repair

Описание: Joined for an evening conversation on the occasion of Marcos Kueh’s first institutional solo exhibition, ‘Smooth Sailing, 一路順風’, at esea contemporary. Taking its title from a Chinese parting blessing '“may you have smooth winds all the way”, the exhibition reflects on journeys, memory, and the afterlives of migration — tracing how textiles hold both the weight of exploitation and the promise of solidarity.

The artist Marcos Kueh was in conversation with Amy George, Senior Curator of Collections, Textiles & Wallpaper at the Whitworth, University of Manchester, and Dr Vera Mey, Asia Triennial Manchester 6 Curatorial Research Fellow at Manchester School of Art. Moderated by Jo-Lene Ong, Curator at esea contemporary, the discussion took us through Kueh’s process in developing this major new work — from researching collections at The Whitworth and the People’s History Museum during his residency at esea contemporary, to expanding his practice into sculptural and kinetic forms.

Together, the conversation reflected on how his evolving practice meditates on endurance, abandonment, and fragile hope, suggesting diaspora as an act of cultural repair and imagination.