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Amandine Vabre Chau

@a_y_v_c

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Curator, Poet & Art Practitioner
📝Research-based: Port-city & Botanical Imperialism
🕐Previously @new_curators @asiancontemporaryart
📍Based in HK/FR
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They Try to Pretend the Past Was Other Than It Was: Bones of Our Land and the Politics of Restoration - Amandine Vabre Chau An addition to Photography+ Un/Stable, the essay looks at Tsz Wai Pun (@_sz_wai) and Coşkun Güçlü (@coskuntheguclu)’s exhibition Bones of Our Land and the politics of restoration, following a hill fire uncovering the tea terraces on Hong Kong’s Tai Mo Shan. The exhibition, originally commissioned by WMA (@wma_hk), is currently presented at Gallery Lock In, Brighton, in partnership with Photoworks, Dreamy Place (@dreamyplaceuk) and Arts Council England (@aceagrams). This is the last weekend to see it, 12-4pm, free entry. Read the full essay at the link in bio. Image: Installation view of ‘Bones of Our Land,’ WMA Space (Hong Kong), 2026. Courtesy of the artists and WMA. by @a_y_v_c
6414.36 nautical miles is an ongoing curatorial research project beginning with a friendship between two curators across distance. Concluding months of research, what follows is an installation in A4’ Arts Foundation’s Reading Room that prioritises images and interactive elements to detail the project lifecycle. This open presentation unravels through audio discussions that viewers can access through QR codes, considered contact points featuring Lemeeze Davids and Amandine Vabre Chau expanding on notions like ‘Ocean’ or ‘Friendship’. Highlighting extracts from roundtables and related projects, the installation also presents compiled reflections by invited practitioners on curatorial and artistic methodology along with meeting details. Artworks by Jody Brand, Jes Fan, and Nolan Oswald Dennis serve as three coordinates. Jody Brand’s sculptural work, 10 Hail Mary’s (2021), featuring abalone shells, links Brand's ancestral knowledge and faith to a resonance between Cantonese cuisine, Cape foraging, and contemporary trade. Dennis’s model for an endless column (2021) foregrounds an underlying concern of the researchers of turning inherited geographies on their head and insisting on other orientations of the world. Jes Fan's video work, Palimpsest (2023), uses the oyster (a mollusc with a long history in Hong Kong) as a metaphor for colonial violence through language, by embedding words within the oysters' mantles. First hosted by the A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town in the form of a ‘Course of Inquiry’ (a six-months open-ended residency for curators and writers), this research is now independent and still ongoing, taking the form of exhibitions, essays, roundtable discussions, physical correspondence, field research, and regular conversations with practitioners. Image credit: Installation view: 6414.36 nautical miles | Research Installation, April 20–May 2, 2026. Image © A4 Arts Foundation. by @a_y_v_c
Thank you to everyone who followed A Kung Ngam: Stone from its inception to fruition! It has been an incredible research project on the eponymous village, a place with more than 150 years history. Thank you to all those who shared their story with us. As a closing goodbye, we thought to share some images of the private viewing we had, as well as some behind the scenes images. From lengthy group meetings to browsing the Asia Art Archive library and conducting interviews, it has been a rich and fulfilling adventure. Although the viewing is now closed, a publication will be launched soon! Please consider buying a copy to support this self-funded project and preserve the memory of the village for years to come. Thank you to everyone who came to see the display, especially the villagers without whom this would not have been possible. [A Kung Ngam Village is situated in Shau Kei Wan, next to photographer Shek Po Kwan’s studio. His visual explorations, and personal interactions with inhabitants, document the unique materiality and social fabric of an area on the cusp of redevelopment.] Images: [1-6]: Shek Po Kwan, A Kung Ngam: Stone, 2026. [7]: Stone Camera, Shek Po Kwan, 2026. [8]: Important group meeting documentation. [9]: Rummaging through Asia Art Archive’s zine library. [10]: On-site research and discussion with villagers. [11]: @andy_seto performing. [12]: Group picture. Photo credit: @soft.groundprod [13]: Tin Se Yat celebration at Yuk Wong Po Din. by @a_y_v_c
Our January show Faan1jik6 Zi1gaan1 was just reviewed in Art Review Asia by @stephanie_waiyi_bailey . You can read it in the newly published summer 2026 issue/link in bio. Curated by Amandine Vabre Chau @a_y_v_c , Faan1jik6 Zi1gaan1 was a group show exploring translation as form featuring CHAN Melody @melody.chan_art , YAN Wai Yin Winnie @yanwaiw and YIP Kai Chun @yipipypypipyiypiyip . “If language is an intimate form of embodied transmission, whereby words are spoken by individuals whose understanding of their meaning is contingent on contextual and interpersonal relations, then it is through language’s everyday use that a more complex, materialist understanding of culture emerges. The title of Faan1jik6 Zi1gaan1, a three-artist group show, is the Romanised, Cantonese transliteration of 翻譯之間 (meaning: ‘In between translations’) and pointedly reflects on that dynamic in the context of Hong Kong.” Thank you @stephanie_waiyi_bailey for your words. by @a_y_v_c
UPDATE: Due to an unforeseen event, the private view is now closed to the public. Thank you to all those who signed up to come see our display, our apologies for the inconvenience. 🪨✨ A KUNG NGAM: STONE ✨🪨 Field Notes from A Kung Ngam Village by Shek Po Kwan 石寶鈞 The stones of A Kung Ngam have been quietly watching for generations. In this new body of work,Shek Po Kwan turns to them as keepers of memory, spirit and story. An intimate encounter with the land itself — slow, tactile, and deeply rooted in one of Hong Kong’s most quietly resilient villages. Curated by Amandine Vabre Chau Visual Identity by @waihon.chan #AKungNgam #HongKongArt #ShauKeiWan #亞公岩 #granite 🪨✨ 亞公岩：石 ✨🪨 亞公岩村觀察日誌 —— 石寶鈞 亞公岩的石頭，數代以來一直在默默見證着這裏的變遷。在全新創作系列中，石寶鈞視它們為記憶、靈魂與故事的守護者。 這是一場與土地的親密對話——步調緩慢、重視觸感，深深紮根於香港其中一個最內斂而堅韌的村落。 策展人：Amandine Vabre Chau 視覺形象設計：@waihon_c by @a_y_v_c
New York 2026 🌱🏙️ Thank you @dennistonhill for having me over, it was an incredible privilege to share this experience with @brooklynbeachouse and @thizzg . Never done so many movie nights in a row before and had so many food comas. I couldn’t have wished for kinder souls to share meals with. We talk about making community but kinship is often formed when people make sense together without trying. And the generosity and gratuity that emerges from that is truly precious. Thank you Lacey and Kelsey for all the hard work put into making this experience seamless ! Shoutout @wetdreamsneverend for being the big apple’s highlight, getting an exclusive tour of the Flushing mall where she and Herb Tam curated the Home-O-Stasis exhibition cut through the loneliness and monotony that was starting to eat at me. Loved talking with the aunties and buying hair clips, discussing art and having dumplings, sharing stories and hopes. Thank you ! 1 - 9: Denniston Hill 10: View of an Upper Room in Ting Qua’s Studio, Studio of Ting Qua, 1850. [Exhibition: Painters, Ports and Profits. Artists and the East India Company at the Yale Center for British Art] 11: Illustrations of the Mode of Preparing the Indian Opium Intended for the Chinese Market, Walter Stanhope Sherwill, 1851. (Drying room in an opium factory in Patna) [Ibid] 12: The Summer Room in the Artist’s House at Patna, Sir Charles D’Oyly, 1824 (Self-depiction of opium smoking at the center of room). [Ibid] 13: Flushing mall where the exhibition Home-O-Stasis took place by @a_y_v_c
Planting the Colony — New essay available online, link in bio !  “Upon my return to Hong Kong in 2024, I was mesmerised by the luscious mountains across the territory. I thought that no matter what pressure was enacted upon the city, its landscape could evade these constraints. After all, plants are an organic and uncontrollable organism emanating from the natural processes of life, fauna and flora tied to forces much larger than ourselves.  Our findings led me to Kadoorie Farm, a botanical garden established in the 1950s to teach local communities to sustain themselves through farming. One of their current objectives is to reintroduce Hong Kong’s indigenous plants to the city. How one classifies a plant as ‘native’ has been a source of debate, and the inherent tension arising from this situation has led artists to explore their own experiences of displacement in conversation with nature. With Hong Kong, this tension takes a particularly incisive twist as the majority of its trees were planted by the British administration. What struck me as nature’s unruly and autonomous presence was, in fact, colonial engineering. Moreover, the planting was done by taking seeds from other British settlements, making Hong Kong a site of transplantation, and its landscape a fusion of its sister colonies. With this in mind, the words of the docent at Kadoorie stayed with me: “Plants are quite surprising, the ones you see right now are the most resilient ones. Unlike animals, they are rooted in place and cannot leave. They have no choice but to survive.” “  The essay on botanical imperialism is finally out. It looks at Cape Town and Hong Kong as two sites where nature is indicative of both coercion and survival, often co-opted and utilised as an infrastructural tool for (re)organising land. Turning to look at contemporary artists, however, we also see it as the very site where reclamation is possible. Available on A4 Arts Foundation’s website. This piece is part of the larger curatorial research project developed in collaboration between Lemeeze Davids and Amandine Vabre Chau unearthing the commonalities and tensions between our respective postcolonial port-cities. by @a_y_v_c
One week left to bathe in the confusion of language and translation at Faan1jik6 Zi1gaan1 (In Between Translations) !!! Our last day will be the 7th of March, bring your friends before it closes or you become illiterate – (oops) 距離《Faan1jik6 Zi1gaan1（In Between Translations）》閉幕只剩下一星期——把握最後機會，沉浸於語言與翻譯嘅混亂之中！展覽將於 3 月 7 日 結束，記得帶埋朋友一齊嚟，趁仲未關展；否則——你可能會突然變得唔識字（Oops）。 至於呢個笑話……不如試下自己翻譯？ 𝑭𝒂𝒂𝒏1𝒋𝒊𝒌6 𝒁𝒊1𝒈𝒂𝒂𝒏1 (𝑰𝒏 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔) CHAN Melody, YAN Wai Yin Winnie, YIP Kai Chun Curated by VABRE CHAU Amandine @a_y_v_c 29th January - 7th March 2026 @melody.chan_art @yanwaiw @yipipypypipyiypiyip Video by Felix SC Wong @asia_art_hopper by @a_y_v_c
𝑶𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒉𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: Faan1jik6 Zi1gaan1(In Between Translations)* is a group show on language, presenting artists working in a translational process. Through installations and videos, CHAN Melody, YAN Wai Yin Winnie and YIP Kai Chun explore how the transmission of information can fluctuate between being an exposing or obscuring act. Language is a negotiation of/with/in the world, an interpretation of observations and thoughts into spoken or written symbols. Often seen as a transparent line of communication, it leads us to omit its potential for distortion and rupture. Working on what escapes clear and straightforward communication, the artists favour simultaneous interpretations instead. We are thus met with multiple forms of language converging and transforming, resulting in works reflecting on history, personal heritage, legitimacy and memory. In their process, they urge us to question whether incomprehension and opacity render language completely impenetrable, or if ambiguity can instead be a potent doorway to reconfigure our relationship between knowledge, visibility and understanding. 透過裝置與影像作品，CHAN Melody、YAN Wai Yin Winnie 及 YIP Kai Chun 探討資訊在傳遞過程中，如何於揭示與遮蔽之間游移。語言既是與世界進行協商嘅方式，亦是將觀察與思考轉化為口語或書寫符號嘅詮釋過程。語言往往被視為透明而直接嘅溝通媒介，從而令我哋忽略其內在嘅扭曲、斷裂與不穩定性。 藝術家聚焦於難以被清晰、線性表述嘅部分，轉而採取並置與同時發生嘅詮釋策略。多種語言形式喺作品中相互交匯、轉化，繼而引發對歷史、個人身世、正當性與記憶等議題嘅反思。在創作過程中，他們引導觀眾思考：當語言陷入不可理解與不透明狀態時，是否意味其徹底失效；抑或模糊與歧義本身，正是一道重新構築知識、可見性與理解之間關係嘅入口。 𝑭𝒂𝒂𝒏1𝒋𝒊𝒌6 𝒁𝒊1𝒈𝒂𝒂𝒏1 (𝑰𝒏 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔) CHAN Melody, YAN Wai Yin Winnie, YIP Kai Chun Curated by VABRE CHAU Amandine @a_y_v_c 29th January - 7th March 2026 @melody.chan_art @yanwaiw @yipipypypipyiypiyip by @a_y_v_c
𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 崖𝘩𝘦𝘢響槓言𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘵, 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 ʙʏ ʏɪᴘ ᴋᴀɪ ᴄʜᴜɴ @yipipypypipyiypiyip 崖𝘩𝘦𝘢響槓言𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘵, 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 is a mixed media installation centred around the artist exploring his father’s native tongue, Hakka. Unable to speak it, language becomes a site of tension, where discovery meets loss, and the restless coupling of breakthrough and forfeiture engenders questions of legitimacy and cultural dispossession. The artist recorded learning sessions with his father over the span of two years, transforming them into the present installation. In order to learn these new words, Yip invented a written hotchpotch of Hong Kong Cantonese, Putonghua pinyin, English and self-invented marks to pinpoint the right tones. These marks crystallise both a desire and fragmentation in his process, indicating aspiration and alienation. Words flash across the red screen, creating a sharp rhythm as if calling for us to repeat them. A hypnotic cadence takes place, inviting the audience to participate in this journey. Sitting close to the screen, we hear both the son’s and the father’s voice– a scratchy and nostalgic sound, distant but alive with familiarity. 《崖𝘩𝘦𝘢響槓言𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘵, 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨》係一件混合媒介裝置作品，聚焦藝術家對父親母語——客家話——嘅探索。由於自己無法流利說出呢種語言，語言本身成為一個充滿張力嘅場域：發現同失落並存，而突破與失去之間不安嘅交纏，引發對文化正當性同文化被剝奪嘅提問。 藝術家歷時兩年，記錄佢同父親一齊學習客家話嘅過程，並將呢啲學習片段轉化為而家嘅裝置作品。為咗掌握新詞彙，Yip 自行創作咗一套混合書寫系統，結合香港粵語、普通話拼音、英文，以及佢自創嘅符號，用嚟標示正確聲調。呢啲記號凝結咗佢學習過程中嘅渴望同破碎狀態，同時指向追求與疏離。詞語喺紅色屏幕上不斷閃現，節奏銳利，彷彿召喚觀眾一齊複誦；一種近乎催眠嘅韻律隨之展開，邀請觀眾參與呢段旅程。當我哋坐近屏幕，可以同時聽到兒子同父親嘅聲音——聲線帶點沙啞，充滿懷舊感，遙遠卻又熟悉，彷彿仍然活著。 𝑭𝒂𝒂𝒏1𝒋𝒊𝒌6 𝒁𝒊1𝒈𝒂𝒂𝒏1 (𝑰𝒏 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔) CHAN Melody, YAN Wai Yin Winnie, YIP Kai Chun Curated by VABRE CHAU Amandine @a_y_v_c Opening: 29th January 6-8pm 29th January - 7th March 2026 by @a_y_v_c
𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝘛𝘰𝘰 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘨𝘰, 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘍𝘢𝘳 ʙʏ ʏᴀɴ ᴡᴀɪ ʏɪɴ ᴡɪɴɴɪᴇ Too Long Ago, Not Far is a two-channel video work shot when the artist was preparing to leave Hong Kong. Yan pulls from 華英通語 (interchangeable expressions between Chinese and English), a textbook first published in 1867, New York. The first of its kind, it teaches English pronunciation by using phonetically-similar Cantonese words. The artist intersects her own images with the extracted text, creating a structure that combines repetitive arrangements with visual poetry. The overlap produces a rupture -or accumulation- in meaning, with the images and words cross-referencing each other. Definitions coalesce into multiple imaginaries, intent becoming both elusive and evident– the transparency melting into uncertainty as the circuitous nature of this video becomes apparent. The work interrogates our relationship to language and space: can we learn a language by blindly repeating its words and can we understand a city by repeatedly walking through it ? 𝑭𝒂𝒂𝒏1𝒋𝒊𝒌6 𝒁𝒊1𝒈𝒂𝒂𝒏1 (𝑰𝒏 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔) CHAN Melody, YAN Wai Yin Winnie, YIP Kai Chun Curated by VABRE CHAU Amandine @a_y_v_c Opening: 29th January 6-8pm 29th January - 7th March 2026 @yanwaiw *** 忻慧妍是一位出生於香港、現居倫敦的藝術家，創作橫跨動態影像、攝影與多媒體裝置。《在不太遙遠的很久以前》攝製於2019至2023年間，正值她即將離開家鄉前往英國之時。 在這件雙頻道影像作品中，忻慧妍取材自1867年於紐約首版的《華英通語》教材。這是史上首部以粵語音近漢字標註英文發音、專為華人學習英語的教科書。藝術家將自己拍攝的影像與摘錄的文字相互交織，先將英語單字與其粵語擬音對齊，然後將這些內容與兩個術語在對方語言中的翻譯並列呈現。 忻慧妍挑戰了透過視覺性、直覺聯想與文化糾纏來建構意義的方式。她作品的結構結合了重複性的編排與視覺詩意，誘使觀眾透過觀察她所創造的並置關係，形成各自的解讀。視覺上的重疊在意義層面產生了斷裂——或是堆疊——使圖像與文字相互參照。各種定義融合為多重想像，創作意圖變得既難以捉摸卻又顯而易見——隨著這部錄像迂迴的本質逐漸顯現，原本的清晰也隨之消融於不確定性之中。 一種近乎漫遊者式的城市遊走呈現在我們眼前，那是記憶與熟悉感的一種漫長碎片化過程。城市像一門外語般緩緩展開，需要一步步走才能理解它。這件作品探究了我們與語言及空間的關係：我們能否藉由盲目複誦單詞來學習一種語言？又能否透過反覆行走於其中來理解一座城市？ by @a_y_v_c
𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 ʙʏ ᴄʜᴀɴ ᴍᴇʟᴏᴅʏ ‘Mind Palace’ from artist Melody Chan is an encrypted visual installation exploring the significance of symbols and their meaning in a civilisational context. Using encryption as her primary tool, she bridges seemingly distant aspects of divination, computation and semiotics. The work consists of 4 long scrolls hanging from the ceiling, hinting at traditional Chinese writing and the coded interfaces of contemporary computation. Chan merges the binary code and the Unicode (the former is employed to encode data, the latter is used on most web pages to encode its text) in order to create her own method of encryption. She transforms her writing into I-ching hexagrams, creating a layered system of signs that resists immediate comprehension. By obscuring meaning through ciphers, Chan questions the efficiency of language and invites us to linger instead on its transformation. Translation becomes an act of interpretation rather than resolution, asking whether understanding content is as important as sensing intent. 𝑭𝒂𝒂𝒏1𝒋𝒊𝒌6 𝒁𝒊1𝒈𝒂𝒂𝒏1 (𝑰𝒏 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔) CHAN Melody, YAN Wai Yin Winnie, YIP Kai Chun Curated by VABRE CHAU Amandine @a_y_v_c Opening: 29th January 6-8pm 29th January - 7th March 2026 @melody.chan_art *** 《寄興深微》是一件加密視覺裝置作品，旨在探索符號於書寫溝通及視覺傳播中的重要性、份量、以及它們在文明脈絡下的意義。她以「加密」作為主要創作手段，這種手法既是隱藏訊息的行為，亦是另一種形式的翻譯——從而將占卜、運算與符號學這三個看似疏遠的領域連結起來。 作品由四幅從天花板垂掛的長卷軸組成。作品採由上而下的閱讀方式，既呼應了中文傳統的書寫慣例，又隱含電腦語言與程式碼的顯示方式。這件作品中，陳逸韻將二進制邏輯與《周易》卦象融合——這些卦象是中國古代占卜中使用的符號。卦象既是一種視覺表現，也是一種對應隱含訊息的陳述。它們是多重性的標記，揭示了符號詮釋的多義並存。 她將書寫內容轉化為一座視覺迷宮，透過密碼模糊了訊息，質疑語言的有效性，同時思索語言的詩意特質。轉化過程本身能否成為內容？在我們這個時代，翻譯能以何種形式存在？她將這些元素轉化為詮釋與啟示的工具，邀請我們深入探究所見、所聞與所理解的一切。 by @a_y_v_c

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