Studio grant holder in Stockholm 4 June – 29 August 2022

Angela Su is an artist based in Hong Kong. Her works investigate the perception and imagery of the body, through metamorphosis, hybridity and transformation. Her research-based projects materialise in drawing, video, hair embroidery, performative and installation works. Central to these projects are video essays and texts where she embodies different alter-egos, weaving together fiction and fact, reality and fantasy. Frequently reimagining and metamorphosing the female mind and body to create sites of resistance against the injustices in our social system, Su pushes the capacity of bodies to withstand violence and bear pain, to be possessed and taken over, and thus to transform and bear witness. With a focus on the history of medical science, her works question the dominant biomedical discourse whilst toying with speculative and outdated medical narratives, contemplating the impact of science and technology on the past, present and future.

Angela Su. Photo: Winnie Yeung @ Visual Voices, Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.

In 2022, Angela Su presented Angela Su: Arise, Hong Kong in Venice at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, commissioned by M+ and HKADC. In 2019, Su was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust to present a new project in Contagious Cities: Far Away, Too Close at Tai Kwun, Hong Kong. She has also participated in exhibitions in museums and institutions internationally, including Levyhalli (Suomenlinna, Helsinki, 2021); Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City, 2020); the Drawing Center (New York City, 2020); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2020); Frieze London (London, 2019); Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2019); the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Vienna, 2017); the 2nd CAFAM Biennale (Beijing, 2014); and the 17th Biennale of Sydney (Sydney, 2010). In 2013, she published an artist novel, Berty, and, in 2017, a science fiction anthology, Dark Fluid, where she uses science fiction as a tool for social justice.