The works in this section offer a glimpse into the everyday lives of people in the Southeast and East Asia geographic region. From bustling cityscapes to quiet rural landscapes, the artists here transport the viewer to specific times and places, creating immersive experiences that evoke a sense of presence and mindfulness, while also showcasing the diversity of the region’s environments. Mundane everyday sights and sounds become poignant and evocative, inviting us to view the world around us with fresh eyes, while encouraging us to take a moment and contemplate what we see.

We are prompted to ask ourselves how different or similar the everyday lives of people in the Southeast and East Asia region are to our own experiences in the UK. While there may be cultural and geographic variations, the work reveals that, at the core, our experiences have more in common than we may originally have thought.

Jess Lau Ching Wa (Hong Kong) 

The Cinema of Walking: Airship
2020
Video
27 minutes

Inspired by stop-motion animation of old cartoon characters walking, the artist began to document people crossing the Kamogawa River using stepping stones in Kyoto, Japan, in the winter of February 2020. The film here is a condensed version of her documentation after days of editing and piecing together the footage, a process that is both painstaking and intuitive.