Rituals & Rebirths: 4 Cromwell Place (Gallery 1)

Rituals and Rebirths is a group exhibition curated by Peruke Projects in collaboration with ai. in London. The exhibition examines the performances of three diasporic Southeast Asian multi-disciplinary artists, constructed around the rituals concerning the rebirths of their oeuvres and the marking of time.  These three artists living between cultures, with transnational hybrid identities, are brought together for the first time alongside one another.  This formidable trio – Anida Yoeu Ali (b.1974, Cambodia), Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (b.1970, Philippines/Denmark), and Quỳnh Lâm (b.1988, Vietnam) - brings to a new audience an opportunity to reflect upon their experiences of crisis, displacement, and otherness, through their rituals, renewals, responses and provocations. 

The exhibition is presented as an installation of videos, photographs, symbolic objects and artefacts, and two participatory performances by Rasmussen and Lâm, the artists document the passing of time in each of their ceremonies. Ali’s The Red Chador installation illustrates the death and rebirth of a provocative and politicized alter ego. Rasmussen’s Today is your performance demonstrates the cyclical nature of life, while Lâm's The Price of Humanity performance illuminates the tumultuous journey of a nomadic outcast. 

Rituals and Rebirths explores the intersections of the three artists' responses to both their personal and geo-political narratives that have shaped their identities.

About the artists 

Anida Yoeu Ali (b. 1974, Cambodia) is a multi-disciplinary artist living & working in the USA. Ali's works include performance, installation, videos, images, public encounters, and political agitation. Ali’s works have been exhibited at the Haus der Kunst, Palais de Tokyo, Musée d'art Contemporain Lyon, Shangri-La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design and the Queensland Art Gallery. She is a recipient of the 2020 Art Matters Fellowship and the 2015 Sovereign Asian Art Prize. She graduated with an MFA from School of the Art Institute Chicago. Ali serves as a Senior Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington Bothell and travels between the Asia-Pacific region and the USA.

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (b.1970, Philippines) is a performance artist who is living & working in Denmark. Cuenca Rasmussen has exhibited and performed internationally including at KIASMA Art Museum, Helsinki, Brooklyn Museum, New York, Tate Modern, London, Performa, New York, Venice Biennale, Thessaloniki biennale, Busan Biennale, The Drawing Room Manila, Röda Sten, Gothenburg, AROS Art Museum, Aarhus, National Gallery,  Singapore, in Copenhagen: SMK/National Gallery Denmark, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen Contemporary.

Quỳnh Lâm (b.1988, Vietnam) is an interdisciplinary artist who is living & working between Bangkok & London. Lâm works in performance, installation, video, and mixed media. She is a winner of The 2021 American Austrian Foundation Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts; a recipient of the Special Jury Prize – 2019 Art Future Prize in Taiwan. Lâm has exhibited work in Vietnam and abroad; including at The Factory Contemporary Arts Center in Ho Chi Minh City; The Vincom Center for Contemporary in Hanoi, Richard Koh Fine Art Gallery in Singapore, Museum of Contemporary Art in Nashville, Palazzo Costanzi Museum in Trieste and the Abbey of San Gallo in Moggio Udinese, Italy.

About Peruke Projects

Peruke Projects is a partnership between Tanya Michele Amador and Sofia Coombe with the principle goal of researching, promoting, and documenting contemporary art from Southeast Asia. Peruke's three key areas of activity are curation of art exhibitions, artist residencies, and its newly launched online platform Art World Database. These undertakings are implemented and funded through partnerships with institutions and organisations which support the arts, culture, and activism.