“Come to Britain (but only if you’re already famous) – New immigration rules exclude young, gifted artists from beyond the European Union” warns the headline on the front page of the December 2012 edition of The Art Newspaper. The 15th Interim Exhibition at Hanmi Gallery addresses the implications of the closure of the Tier 1 (Post-study work) Visa to new applicants from 6 April 2012 (Link to Home Office website here).
What it means is that in London we won’t really get to know the work of as many young Korean artists studying in London: they’ll graduate, and then they’ll be off back to Korea, instead of being able to stay for another two years, creating and exhibiting. A highly undesirable consequence of tighter immigration policy.
To Remain: It’s Just a Matter of Time
Hanmi Gallery, 12 – 19 December
To Remain: It’s Just a Matter of Time is an invitation to recently graduated international students whose leave is imminent due to the recent changes in immigration policy – the closing of the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) visa on 6 April 2012 which had allowed non-EU graduates to live and work in the UK for up to two year after graduation. The exhibition features the belongings of these artists – art objects or otherwise – that are to remain. It will serve as a remembrance to the artists’ time here as well as a platform for the objects’ continuing narrative, enquiring into how personal stories and cultural / economic values become inscribed in these objects.
Participating Artists: Yoonsuk Choi, Gary Fox, Jungpyo Hong, Aisha Abid Hussein, Hyeisoo Kim, Woojin Kim, Alvin Lim and Fay Shin
Preview Event: Tuesday 11 December 2012, 6pm-9pm
Panel Discussion / 6pm-7pm: A short talk by Manick Govinda (Head of Artists’ Advisory Services and a Producer at Artsadmin) – ‘How British immigration policy is crippling artistic exchange?’ and Dr Ludovic Coupaye (Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at University College London) – ‘Displaced ‘Remains’: Musing on Artefacts in the Ethnographic Collections of UCL’ will lead into a group discussion.
This will be followed by an opening reception.This project is curated by Hyun Jin Cho and Leeji Hong.
Hanmi Gallery
30 Maple Street
London W1T 6HA
T +44(0)20 8286 4426
[email protected]
www.hanmigallery.co.uk
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