Dr Poyan Yee
Healing Through Curatorial Dialogue
Website Poyan Yee
Biography
Since I have settled back at home, Hong Kong, since 2010, I embrace the importance of dialogue as well as action research worldview in art teaching, curatorial practice and writing. I am also working as a freelance writer and columnist covering art exhibitions in Hong Kong.
Academic Qualifications
2006-2011 PhD in Visual Arts (Practice-led)
Northumbria University at Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
2002-2003 MA Photographic Studies
University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
1991-1994 BSSc (Hon) China Studies
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Academic Award
Northumbria University Studentship, 2006 - 2009
PhD abstract
Healing Through Curatorial Dialogue reports on a project developed within a collaboration between the Department of Arts at Northumbria University and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. My thesis explores not only what the exhibiting of artworks in hospitals adds to healthcare concepts such as healing and wellbeing (Kaye & Blee, 1997; Haldane & Loppert, 1999; Kirklin & Richardson, 2003) but also how the curatorial practices of artists, an area of fine art research that addresses experimental exhibition production and audience development (Hannula, 1998; Putnam, 2001; Kester, 2004), stimulates and facilitates new levels of dialogue between patients, hospital staff and local artists.
Curatorial dialogue is a concept that involves making connections between people and artworks as well as between creators and viewers of exhibitions. This happens at multiple levels. To place an exhibition of recent artworks by local artists in a regional hospital involves many formal and informal conversations; many intentional and spontaneous engagements with art objects; and countless multi-sensory interactions with the busy spaces in which the exhibition has been installed. In order to transform these dialogues into a research method I have explored the concept of healing, the process of ‘making whole’ (Jackson, 2004; Egnew, 2005). As with most fine art practice-led doctoral projects, I have utilized the action research cycle (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1998) and modified the process to incorporate, not only the successive stages of my personal growth as a creative practitioner, but also the crucial influence of healthcare staff, patients and local artists within the expansion of my ideas during my research journey. My conclusion evaluates the creative connections that the exhibiting process, and the group dialogue (Gadamer, 1979, 1996; Bohm, 2004; Freire, 2004) that supported each exhibition, has generated for arts communities and hospital users in the region. Most importantly, the research considers the potential for harmonious action by artists and healthcare professionals and speculates on future projects that respect the important ideological differences between the two worlds.
recent exhibitions
2012 Design, I Say - the Five Elements of an Ideal City, at Detour 2012, Hong Kong (curated project)
2012 Community Workshop clock clock clock in collaboration with artist Marco de Mutiis for Wanchai Visual Archives (curated project)
2011 Coast.Lines, Hong Kong (group show)
2010 Family Album by the Forbes, Hexham (curated project)
2010 Tree of Hope by Stephanie Wassell, Amanda Gray, Hanah Johnson, Jill Armstrong and Rachel Robson, Hexham (curated project)
2010 Flow, Hexham (solo)
2010 Wishes by the department of Diabetes Team, Hexham General Hospital, Hexham (curated project)
2009 ‘Vit.PhD: Packing for the Crash (McRae 2005)’, Newcastle upon Tyne (group show)
2009 Healing Through Dialogue by the department of Diabetes Team, Hexham General Hospital, Hexham (curated project)
2009 The Experiment by Queen Elizabeth High School students, Hexham (curated project)
2009 Looking down by Penny Grennan in collaboration with the Radiology Department, Hexham General Hospital, Hexham
2009 Ode to Light in collaboration with i the Radiology Department, Hexham General Hospital, Hexham
Biography
Since I have settled back at home, Hong Kong, since 2010, I embrace the importance of dialogue as well as action research worldview in art teaching, curatorial practice and writing. I am also working as a freelance writer and columnist covering art exhibitions in Hong Kong.
Academic Qualifications
2006-2011 PhD in Visual Arts (Practice-led)
Northumbria University at Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom
2002-2003 MA Photographic Studies
University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
1991-1994 BSSc (Hon) China Studies
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Academic Award
Northumbria University Studentship, 2006 - 2009
PhD abstract
Healing Through Curatorial Dialogue reports on a project developed within a collaboration between the Department of Arts at Northumbria University and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. My thesis explores not only what the exhibiting of artworks in hospitals adds to healthcare concepts such as healing and wellbeing (Kaye & Blee, 1997; Haldane & Loppert, 1999; Kirklin & Richardson, 2003) but also how the curatorial practices of artists, an area of fine art research that addresses experimental exhibition production and audience development (Hannula, 1998; Putnam, 2001; Kester, 2004), stimulates and facilitates new levels of dialogue between patients, hospital staff and local artists.
Curatorial dialogue is a concept that involves making connections between people and artworks as well as between creators and viewers of exhibitions. This happens at multiple levels. To place an exhibition of recent artworks by local artists in a regional hospital involves many formal and informal conversations; many intentional and spontaneous engagements with art objects; and countless multi-sensory interactions with the busy spaces in which the exhibition has been installed. In order to transform these dialogues into a research method I have explored the concept of healing, the process of ‘making whole’ (Jackson, 2004; Egnew, 2005). As with most fine art practice-led doctoral projects, I have utilized the action research cycle (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1998) and modified the process to incorporate, not only the successive stages of my personal growth as a creative practitioner, but also the crucial influence of healthcare staff, patients and local artists within the expansion of my ideas during my research journey. My conclusion evaluates the creative connections that the exhibiting process, and the group dialogue (Gadamer, 1979, 1996; Bohm, 2004; Freire, 2004) that supported each exhibition, has generated for arts communities and hospital users in the region. Most importantly, the research considers the potential for harmonious action by artists and healthcare professionals and speculates on future projects that respect the important ideological differences between the two worlds.
recent exhibitions
2012 Design, I Say - the Five Elements of an Ideal City, at Detour 2012, Hong Kong (curated project)
2012 Community Workshop clock clock clock in collaboration with artist Marco de Mutiis for Wanchai Visual Archives (curated project)
2011 Coast.Lines, Hong Kong (group show)
2010 Family Album by the Forbes, Hexham (curated project)
2010 Tree of Hope by Stephanie Wassell, Amanda Gray, Hanah Johnson, Jill Armstrong and Rachel Robson, Hexham (curated project)
2010 Flow, Hexham (solo)
2010 Wishes by the department of Diabetes Team, Hexham General Hospital, Hexham (curated project)
2009 ‘Vit.PhD: Packing for the Crash (McRae 2005)’, Newcastle upon Tyne (group show)
2009 Healing Through Dialogue by the department of Diabetes Team, Hexham General Hospital, Hexham (curated project)
2009 The Experiment by Queen Elizabeth High School students, Hexham (curated project)
2009 Looking down by Penny Grennan in collaboration with the Radiology Department, Hexham General Hospital, Hexham
2009 Ode to Light in collaboration with i the Radiology Department, Hexham General Hospital, Hexham