Xuan Yeo
yeoxuan00@gmail.comXuan is a Singaporean-Malaysian textile artist, and perfumer at Goldsmiths, living between Singapore and London. Her practice(s) are rooted in negation and emptiness, in order to activate meditative environments that underscore the extreme labour-intensiveness of their making. Through hand-woven textiles, perfumery, and installation, her work focuses on material origin and her matrilineal heritage, seeing through processes in karmic cycles and memory.
Her practice is often grounded in concepts of Mahāyāna Buddhism and in karma. The making of her work thus functions as anti-productive, anti-individual and anti-expressive: through meditation and labour, they are mutually formulaic and repetitive. They require a simultaneous annihilation and regeneration, a reflection of 无我 (no-self) and of 慈悲 (compassion).
She is also coproducer of a women’s textile collective known as Silkworm, with extended experience conducting community collaborations and workshops, as well as teaching various textile crafts ranging from crochet to weaving. She has worked across London and Singapore, such as with Fitzrovia Gallery, Starch, Goldsmiths Centre of Contemporary Art, Constance Howard Gallery, Barbican Arts Group Trust, Kunst Affair, and Studio Lotusroot. Xuan has also directed visual content for Coolcolor contact lens, Sengkang General Hospital, PK Records, and Global Cultural Alliance. She recently graduated from BA Fine Art and History of Art at Goldsmiths with First Class Honours.
Exhibitions
2024 I Spun Me a Strand, Thames-Side Studios Lounge (London, England)
2023 Kunst Affair 3.0, AMP Studios (London, England)
2023 Goldsmiths BA Degree Shows 2023, Goldsmiths (London, England)
2023 Barang Shop 3, Studio Lotusroot (London, England)
2022 ArtWorks Open 2022, Barbican Arts Group Trust (London, England)
2022 Thresholds of Being, starch (Singapore)
Facilitations
2024 Collective Spice Mapping, ZII Gallery (London, England)
2024 絲 sī, Mimosa House (London, England)
2024 Community Tapestry, Free Books Festival X Synonym Lab (London, England)
2024 Introduction to Weaving, Woolwich Open, Thames-Side Studios (London, England)
2024 Loose Ends, Threading Memory II, Thames-Side Studios (London, England)
2024 Wapping Quilt Project, Jesuit Refugee Centre (London, England)
2023 Threading Memory, A Particular Reality X Silkworm Collective X Goldsmiths Centre of Contemporary Art
(London, England)
2023 Temporary Autonomous Art London, Regents’ Park (London, England)
2023 Fruits of Conviviality, Saint James Hatcham Church, May 2023 (London, England)
2022 Outstretched, for Festival of Research, Goldsmiths Research Internship Programme (London, England)
Publications
2024 Reimagining Crits, A Particular Reality (London, England)
2023 Shifting the Margins, The Centre for Arts and Learning x Goldsmiths’ Art Department (London, England)
Residencies/Collaborations
2024 Synonym Lab, Facilitator (London, England)
2024 Stitch Circle, Constance Howard Gallery (London, England)
2024 Martina Larsson & Artists, 139 Whitfield St, The Fitzrovia Gallery (London, England)
2023 Creative Perfumery Practice, Institute of Art and Olfaction (Los Angeles, California)
2022 tammie lim, PK Records (Singapore)
2019 Sengkang General Hospital, Concept artist (Singapore)