Dadi Spends Summer as Scholar- and Artist-in-Residence in Hong Kong

Associate Professor Iftikhar Dadi, art, spent July and August in Hong Kong as a scholar-in-residence and artist-in residence in a collaborative venture between Asia Art Archive and Spring Workshop.

The two-month residency included both scholarship and art practice. Dadi presented his research on modernism in Asia in a public talk at Asia Art Archive, and participated in a closed workshop that brought together scholars, curators, and artists from the region interested in the relationship between tradition and contemporary art.

At Spring Workshop, Dadi, in collaboration with Elizabeth Dadi, researched and created new artworks, including a series of light sculptures that investigate the trajectory of industrial production in the global South, the aesthetic dimensions of informality, the forces of vernacular capitalism, and the often-invisible processes of globalization-from-below.

A not-for-profit research organization, Asia Art Archive is a leading resource for scholarly research on recent art in Asia. It documents the development of art in the region, and has an extensive holding of published books, journals, and catalogues, as well as rare primary archival materials. Dadi serves on the Advisory Board of Asia Art Archive.

Spring Workshop is a nonprofit arts space committed to an international cross-disciplinary program of artist and curatorial residencies, exhibitions, music, film and talks. Spring serves as a platform and laboratory for exchange between the vibrant artists and organizations of Hong Kong's cultural landscape and their international counterparts.

By Rebecca Bowes