ONLINE TALK: Body, Land and Photography

Wednesday 1 June, 2pm, free event

Photographer Yan Wang Preston in an online conversation with Zelda Cheatle.

Online discussion with artist Yan Wang Preston in relation to the four major bodies of work in her solo exhibition With Love at Messums London, completed in the UK and China over the last decade. Wang Preston discusses finding a feminist language within the male-dominated canon of landscape art, exploring postcolonial dialogues in relation to ecosystems, and the endurance-based process behind her photographic practice.

Speakers

Zelda Cheatle spent the 1980’s at the Photographers Gallery, opened her own eponymous gallery in 1989, the year photography celebrated its 150th birthday and the Royal Academy opened its doors to the medium with an historic exhibition- not only for the content but in its huge audience appetite for the medium.

After 25 years of exhibiting, publishing and participation with museums, universities, institutions , Zelda Cheatle began the first photography Fund and collected nearly 6000 iconic international photographic works, loaning them to museums worldwide, publishing and disseminating photography through symposiums and lectures.

In 2012 Zelda Cheatle began an independent career encompassing curating major show, in China ( Yan Wang Preston), Beaton at The Hermitage St Petersburg, Dubai Photography exhibition (868 photographic artworks from 16 countries), and most recently Jeddah Photo , an exhibition of 19 photographers/artists integrating Saudi Arabian artists with an international roster. Currently the Honorary Fellow and recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award from the RPS, Honorary Fellow of Arts University Bournemouth, Associate lecturer at UAL, visiting lecturer at UWE and University of Westminster.

Dr Yan Wang Preston is a British-Chinese artist interested in the intercultural connections between landscape, identity and migration. Her work has won many international awards such as the 1st Prize, Syngenta Photography Award 2017 and the 1st Prize, Professional Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards 2019. She has exhibited widely and internationally at venues including Jeddah Photo 2022, Fotofest Biennial 2020, Houston USA, Gallery of Photography Ireland, the 56th Venice Biennale and Three Gorges Museum, Chongqing, China.

Current and Upcoming exhibitions include: Forest, in Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, Mannheim, Germany, Mar-May 2022; Autumn-Leaves, in Rhododendrons: Riddle Obsession Threat, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Apr-Jun 2022; and With Love. From an Invader. (solo exhibition), John Hope Gateway, also at RBGE, UK, May-Aug 2022.

Preston’s monographs are Forest and Mother River (Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2018). She received a PhD in Photography at the University of Plymouth in 2018 and currently lectures at the University of Huddersfield, UK. She was originally trained in Clinical Medicine in Fudan University, China.

Attendees will receive a Zoom link by email before the start of the event.