BIO
Han Mengyun (b. 1989, Wuhan) is a visual artist, comparatist, multilingual writer and a mother.
She is currently based in London.
Her practice addresses the decolonisation of the phenomena of Eurasian transcultural hybridisations that occurred across vast landscapes of time and space from the dominative mediation of the Western conceptual gaze. She was initially trained in the Western tradition of oil painting but diverted from the singular viewpoint of art production towards the complexity of historical ties in the profoundly intercultural context of the continent’s history and present. The broad focus of her research covers interdisciplinary manifestations of cultural dialogue and polyvocal aesthetic conversation — from religion, philosophy, and mythologies to trade, vernacular craftsmanship, and bookmaking. Recently, she has been working on Indian and Persian manuscript traditions and woodblock printing in China and Japan.
The subjects of intersectionality and legacies of imperialism are another significant recurring trope in her practice. She mediates the relationship between personal and collective from her experience as a female subaltern and emerging notions of alternative plateaus of solidarity in the struggle for visibility and just access to shaping the planetary cultural discourse. The ruptures of neoliberal globalisation, cultural hegemony and inter-contextual conflicts reflect the multimedia character of her work, ranging from painting and conceptual installation to filmmaking and writing. As a transdisciplinary inquirer, Han Mengyun challenges the Aristotelian hierarchisation of knowledge, ritual and aesthetics, highlighting the importance of rethinking the conceptual boundaries between known, to be learned and unknowable in the emerging post-Western dominated world. Her work raises the diachronic question of the potentiality of inter-faith, inter-racial and multi-lingual pan-Asianiasm.
Han Mengyun received BA in Studio Art from Bard College and has pursued the study of Sanskrit at various institutions such as Kyoto University before she completed her MFA at the University of Oxford with a research focus on Classical Indology and Indian aesthetic theories.
For all inquiries, please contact: hanmengyunstudio@gmail.com
简介
韩梦云（1989年生于武汉）是一位目前常驻于伦敦的视觉艺术家、比较文化学者, 多语写作者以及一位母亲。
她的实践回应着欧亚跨文化混融现象的去殖民化问题，这种混杂交融发生于广阔的时空地景之上，脱离了源自西方观念凝视的主导性调介。她在艺术生涯初期接受的是西方传统下的油画训练，但随后则从艺术创作的单一视角转向了欧亚大陆今时往昔深远的跨文化语境下历史连结的复杂性。她的研究涉猎广泛，涵盖了文化对话与多元美学交流的跨学科表现形式——从宗教、哲学、神话到贸易、民间工艺和制书。近期，印度与波斯的手抄本传统以及中国与日本的木版印刷是她正在投入研究的领域。
交叉性以及帝国主义的历史遗留是她实践中另一种反复出现的重要修辞。通过她身为女性下庶群体一员的自身体验，以及在争取可见性、争取塑造行星文化话语的平等机会中关于他异性“团结”高原效应的新兴概念，她调介着个体与集体的关系。新自由主义全球化、文化霸权和跨语境冲突所引发的断裂映射出她作品的多媒介特质，其范围跨越绘画、概念装置、再到影像创作与写作。作为一位跨学科的探询者，韩梦云挑战着亚里士多德式的知识、仪式与美学的等级制度，强调着在后-西方主导的新兴世界中，重思已知、待学和不可知之间存在的概念界限的重要意义。她的作品提出了关于跨信仰、跨种族以及多语言泛亚细亚主义所具潜能的历时性问题。
韩梦云于巴德学院(Bard College)获得艺术学士学位，并于京都大学(Kyoto University)等多所机构从事梵文研究，后于牛津大学取得艺术硕士学位(MFA)，主要研究方向为古典印度学和印度美学理论。
Han Mengyun
b.1989 Wuhan, China
Currently based in London
EDUCATION
2018 M.F.A. (Distinction), University of Oxford, UK
2016 Research Student, Sanskrit and Classical Indian Aesthetics, Kyoto University, Japan
2012 B.A, Studio Art, Bard College, US
TALK & PRESENTATION
2023 Artist Talk "Wrongness as Method", UCCA Edge, Shanghai
2022 Artist Talk “Craft as Transcultural Practice”, CFCCA, Manchester, UK
2022 Workshop: Committing an Ornamental Crime, CFCCA, Manchester, UK
2022 Artist Talk, Open Practice Committee, Department of Visual Arts, University of Chicago, US
2022 Conversation with Dorota Gawęda+Eglė Kulbokaitė, Power Station of Art
2021 Spirituality in Art Practice: Han Mengyun in conversation with Lulwah Al Homoud, Diriyah Biennale: Feeling the Stones, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2021 Silent Thunder: The Intersection between Buddhism and Contemporary Art, UCCA, Beijing
2020 Confession, Muge Gallery, Chengdu, China
2019 Confession, “Activating Our Archives”, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
PRESS & REVIEW
2023 Li Siyi, Unsettled Painting and the Image beyond Painting, ART-BA-BA
2023 Suchao Li, Han Mengyun: The Shape of Silence, BUOYANT ART
2023 Luan Shixuan, “Painting Unsettled”, UCCA Edge, Shanghai
2022 Boliang Shen, “Archiving the Art of An Era”, The Art Newspaper, 100th Issue Special Edition
2022 Suchao Li, “Han Mengyun: Night”, Limited Views
2022 Yiren Shen, “Focus on the Makers of Art History in the Future”, Artnet
2022 Pamela Wong, “Everyday Poetry: Han Mengyun”, ArtAsiaPacific, Issue 128
2022 Cai Zhenyu, “Mirror as Mind”, The Thinker, Issue 73
2022 Paul Laster, “Crossing the River by ‘Feeling the Stones’ ”, ArtAsiaPacific
2022 Rahel Aima, “Stepping Stones: The Saudi scene takes the world stage”, Artforum
2021 Sam Gaskin, “Han Mengyun’s The Pavilion of Three Mirrors”, Ocula
2019 Sthaneshwar Timalsina, “Splinters of Jade: A Postscript”
2015 Rubén Pose, “Manchas Taoístas (Taoist Traces)”, Dangdai. Vol. 14
2014 Rubén Pose “The Influence of Daoist Aesthetics Traditions to Argentina”, Sino-USA Arts Journal
2013 Fu Chong. “The Ineffable”, World Art Magazine
2013 Jonathan Goodman, “Beijing: Mengyun Han at the Today Art Museum”, Art Critical
2013 Jonathan Goodman, “Elegía al vacío: Mengyun Han (Elegies for Emptiness)”, Frontera D
2013 Fu Chong, “Whence things have their origin: The meaning of abstract painting and In Between Islands”, catalogue In Between Islands, Today Art Museum
WRITING & PUBLICATION
2023 Artist as Translator, artasiapacific, Hong Kong (forthcoming)
2022 When the Silent Soul Speaks (forthcoming)
2022 Han Mengyun’s Bilingual Poem Collection: Night, published by IS A Gallery, Shanghai
2022 Suzan Frecon: Between Sun and Stone, self-published on Limited Views
2021 Yu Ji & Han Mengyun, New Museum Triennial: Soft Water Hard Stone, Phaidon, NY, US
2021 Karlo Kacharava’s World of the World, LUNCHEON Magazine, London, UK
2021 Conversation with Shun Kadohashi, Unearth001, Chose Commune, Marseille, France
2021 Between Liminal Spaces: Interview with Edmund de Waal, The Thinker, Beijing
2021 Sanya Kantarovsky’s Truth-Bearing Fantasy, Hyperallergic, NY, US
2021 Painting as the Frame of Perception, Leap, Shanghai
2021 Echoes of Buddhist ‘Emptiness’ in Contemporary Chinese Art, Hyperallergic, NY, US
2021 Photography as Mindfulness of Death: Deanna Dikeman’s Leaving and Waving, American Suburb X
2020 Painting the Eternity of Time: Tu Hongtao’s Twisting and Turning, Hyperallergic, NY, US
RESIDENCY & AWARD
2022 Artist Residency at esea contemporary (formerly CFCCA), Manchester, UK
2018 The Emery Award, Shortlist, Oxford, UK
2017 Oxford University Levett Scholarship, Oxford, UK
2012 Mason Gross School of the Arts Teaching Assistant Fellowship, NJ, US
2011 Christina R. Tarsell Studio Arts Award, NY, US
2000 Jane Fromm Yacenda Scholarship in the Arts, NY, US
2008 Helen Walter Bernstein ‘48 Scholarship, NY, US
TEACHING & PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
2020 British Museum, London, UK
2020 Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK
2012 Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, NJ, US
NEWS
| Listen to the Reed (forthcoming)
Han Mengyun Solo Exhibition
ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai
November, 2023
| Serenade
Art Basel Hong Kong
ShanghART Gallery
2023.03.23-25
| SIGG : Chinese Contemporary Art from the Sigg Collection (forthcoming)
SONGEUN, Seoul, Korea
March 10th - May 20th, 2023
AORA SPACE
2022.06.30 - 09.24
Art Basel, Basel
2022.06.16-19
ShanghART Gallery
Booth R25
| A Place for Concealment
Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing
2022.05.27-08.07
| The Pavilion of Three Mirrors
Diriyah Biennale: Feeling the Stones
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2021.12.11 - 2022.3.11
| Online Artist Talk:
"The Dwelling place of the Other in Me" x Han Mengyun & Young Girl Reading Group (Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė)
Power Station of Art, Shanghai
Supported by Pro Helvetia
| Artist Talk at the Open Practice Committee
Department of Visual Arts, University of Chicago
2022.01.24