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Iris 耀敏 Mak

@iirislikesart

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can’t afford therapy so i’m writing instead

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In an age of digital access, is the answer simply to retreat into the analogue?

The solution is probably more mundane and perhaps less transformative than we imagine. Sometimes all you need is Wikipedia and a good Youtube algorithm.

Recently I hosted a listening party where we went through music that pushes the boundaries of what is expected from a particular genre or place. I’ve linked all the songs in the article, including the ones recommended by the participants. Enjoy! by @iirislikesart

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13 days ago

These are purely my own thoughts and projections, there will be a lot of people who feel differently. Also, my mind is always changing so I might not feel the same way in the future. Writing this felt like a way to exorcise the self pity and directionless anger that’s been accumulating in my diary. i hope you enjoyed regardless.

I started a substack where i’ve posted the full essay. i’ll also be hosting a workshop on 29 september at @londonartservices that tackles some of the questions i’ve been asking myself.

Photos are my own and consist of some of my favourite art experiences in the past year. by @iirislikesart

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a month ago

This book was very confusing. It wasn’t until halfway through that I realized what I was reading wasn’t a translated Japanese colonial-era text. It is actually a work of fiction disguised as a rediscovered historical document. Through a profusion of authors, translators and footnotes, the book traces its own fictional history.

This is a story that reveals the fallibility of all stories, fiction or nonfiction. Stories can be lost, rediscovered, and transformed, especially through translation. The book questions what translation does to a text, and whether it can genuinely reach the truth of what’s being communicated. Cultural context can never be crossed over perfectly, not just in translated texts, but also in how we take in information in general, it is always going to be filtered through our own subjective point of view.

The story is narrated by a Japanese writer travelling in Taiwan, previously a Japanese colony. Determined to preserve local Taiwanese traditions that are dying out under Japanese colonial rule, the narrator eagerly tries to get past a tourist’s version of the country for something more authentic. She falls in love with her Taiwanese translator, and repeatedly expresses her disgust about her own country’s brute acts of erasing the local culture.

But love cannot overcome the inherent pervasiveness in colonisation. The coloniser believes she is treating the colonised equally. But despite her best intentions to defend and protect her Taiwanese translater, these acts only diminish the possibility of an equal friendship between them. “There is nothing in the world more difficult to refuse than self-righteous goodwill.”

(continued in comments) by @iirislikesart

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2 months ago

What are the stakes of working independently of galleries and institutions? Is it even possible for art to escape commodification?

I had the privilege of interviewing @g.o.h.u.n.g who kindly shared his experience of balancing his job and his artistic practice, why he chooses the streets as the site for his projects, and the risks that it comes with.

I really admire Go Hung’s philosophy, work ethic and dedication, and I hope some of that comes through in our conversation.

Link in bio for the full interview. by @iirislikesart

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24 days ago

A line of rectangles against a baby blue background. What seems to be film stills of a house falling from the sky are actually a series of tiny acrylic paintings.

Resembling low-resolution images found online, these works are less about process than about the deliberate curation of imagery. The idea is simple, but it’s built on a tangled history of image-making, one that is becoming increasingly impossible to navigate. Our visual culture has become is so oversaturated with visual debris that it’s no longer possible to clearly separate reality from representation.

What if we stopped insisting on that distinction? If we collapse the distance between the source image and its representation, then the painting becomes the image. The painter isn’t simply rendering the world, but composing it. The painting is the immediate moment it depicts.

Images, whether painted or digitally rendered, are not simply visual texts awaiting theoretical ‘readings’, but are themselves already intensely theoretical. Like words, images are just another form of knowledge. They can be strung into sentences to build meaning.

We live in a world where our relationship to truth is manufactured through overexposure to multiple competing truths. The show leans into this hall-of-mirrors effect by accepting the collapse of the real. Like the house, everything we know is thrown into the air: what counts as reality, what counts as fiction, and whether the reality we’re living in is of our own. Just as how a painter can create an image to validate a fictional event, our reality is constructed through institutional legitimacy. Humans have become skillful arbiters of truth, but are still standing too close to properly judge the scope of the story they tell themselves.

Perhaps, eventually, we will treat images less as an illustration or a description, and more as agents that theorise themselves. Painting becomes image, fiction becomes fact.

‘Burn Down the House’ by Lucien Smith @feareatsthesoil is on at @kearsey.gold by @iirislikesart

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3 months ago

Titled “Living, rehearsing”, this festival of performances at @ydp_space uses the concept of ‘rehearsal’ as a strategy for organising, reconfiguring and reimagining our lives as we venture into the unknown.

In this iteration, @studiotarekatoui acts as the conductor, but does not dictate what each performer does. His keen attentiveness to each performer’s singular qualities is evident in how seamlessly everyone is able to shift between their individual setups and his own.

What this performance showed me was the hospitality of improvisation. It acknowledges each performer’s individual journey while allowing them to seek greater meaning within the context of others. Improvisation, ultimately, is about knowing how to position yourself in the present tense, a time where we can be an individual but still share presence with others.

Today the international biennial has become an art form in itself. It reflects the desire for global conversations to remain alive. This performance made me realise that this kind of art is not just about highlighting our commonalities, which would only risk slipping into the pitfalls of universalism.

Perhaps ‘rehearsal’ provides us with a method to carefully and responsibly bring people and ideas together, to embrace our political and cultural differences while still creating empathy, even for those whose views may differ from our own.

“Living, rehearsing” was curated by @timelessclock @erinmoving and @billytanng

Featuring @shakeeb.abu.hamdan @elvinbrandhi @lilichin1111 @cldhoney @pike00000 @shannonlatoyah taken in London, United Kingdom by @iirislikesart

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5 months ago

I’ve been thinking a lot about this ballet choreographed by @studiowaynemcgregor I saw last week.

Like any ballet, the movements were controlled and beautiful. But I find that the choreography’s real achievement lies particularly in the glitching and snapping of the bodies. It stood out to me as a composition that was dedicated to the irregularity of bodily movement.

Mcgregor seems to be acutely aware of way bodies react to and take up empty space. Bodies volatile, the way they moved was like watching a human become conscious of their body for the first time, purely instinctual.

The choreography stripped rhythm and movement down to their core, as did @beibeiwangpercussion ‘s vibrant yet vulnerable performance. They weren’t dancers, but clusters of particles that congengrate, separate, and recombine. Each performer didn’t operate in isolation, they moved as one collective body. It made me think how easy it is to forget that the world can be so much bigger than ourselves.

My eyes kept shifting in between single bodies, duos and broader constellations. I wish I could’ve opened my eyes wider to take everything in. taken in London, United Kingdom by @iirislikesart

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5 months ago

Yip Kai Chun, ‘崖hea響槓言voice from the root, reclaiming’, mixed media installation.

As part of the exhibition Faan1 jik6 Si1gaan1 (In Between Translation) at Square Street Gallery, curated by @a_y_v_c taken in Hong Kong , 香港 by @iirislikesart

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7 months ago

Pratchaya Phinthong, ‘Empty Set’ at Para Site Art Space.

@pratchayaphinthong
@parasite.hk

curated by @billytanng taken in Para Site by @iirislikesart

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a year ago

Chan Hau Chun, “Map of Traces”, 2025, black and white video, 29 min 13 sec. Exhibited at Empty Gallery.

#ChanHauChun @emptygallery.hk taken in Empty Gallery by @iirislikesart

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a year ago

‘Condensed Word, Displaced Flesh’, exhibited at Delfina Foundation by Freudian Typo.

@delfinafdn
@ghazaleh.avarzamani
@ali_ahadi_studio
curated by @erinmoving taken in Delfina Foundation by @iirislikesart

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a year ago

Dan Guthrie, ‘Empty Alcove / Rotten Figure’ at Chisenhale Gallery.

@danglefree
@chisenhalegallery taken in Chisenhale Gallery by @iirislikesart

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a year ago