The Restoration of Happiness addresses Southeast Asia’s historically fraught relationship with the West, while also foregrounding internal questions of power, identity and conflict within individual nations. Working with humour, speculative fiction and futurist aesthetics, the artists mobilise digital forms as sites of juxtaposition, where past and present intersect with possible futures. In doing so, The Restoration of Happiness situates contemporary Southeast Asian art within broader debates on global modernity, postcolonial critique and the cultural politics of technology.
The Restoration of Happiness is a group exhibition of works by four Southeast Asian artists that examines the region’s unstable socio-political conditions across generations. And into imagined futures. Artists in this exhibition are Krerkburin Kerngburi, Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee, Chulayarnnon Siriphol and Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần.
Date: 10 October – 15 November
Open hours: Wed – Sat, 12pm – 6pm
Address: Bloc Projects, 71 Eyre Lane, Sheffield S1 4RB
FREE Entry
Launch event: Friday, 10 October, 5:30 – 7:30pm
Accompanying events programme:
Film screening of Both Sides Now 10, presented by videoclub, on 23 October at Bloc Projects – showing films by international artists from Hong Kong and the UK. Book your tickets here.
Closing party at Gut Level on 15 November – featuring Southeast Asian musicians Sayang and Kom Kom. Ticket holders only, please book your tickets here.
This exhibition is part of the launch of ESEA Futures, Bloc Projects’ annual programme dedicated specifically to ESEA diasporas and art.
Supported by Arts Council England and the University of Sheffield.
