Dry Room, Inside Job and King Lear

Dry Room is a cross-disciplinary piece about childhood trauma, friendship, and redemption. Following its successful premiere at the World Stage Design Quadrennial 2017, the show will be given its UK premiere at the Brighton Fringe before moving on to the Old Fire Station Oxford. 

This weekend (6 - 8 April), however, the associate film Dry Room is being displayed at Tate Modern in Inside Job, which presents works by 135 employees from Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives, including painting, photography and sculptures. Tonight I was at the PV with Director & Co-Designer, Zi Ling, and Story writer & Producer, Eldarin Yeong.

Ling had a double reason for celebrating tonight as her watercolour King Lear won The Frank Herring Easel Award in her first exhibition as a Candidate Member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. It is her fourth exhibition with the Institute since 2015 and she has four new paintings in the exhibition at Mall Galleries.

In addition to Dry Room, the following are also well worth looking out for at Inside Job: Ed Hadfield's ‘Affirmative 1’; Izna Bandey's ‘There Are No Words’; and Kyriaki Mitsou's 'TETRALOGY: PRAY LOVE TRY HOPE'.  

Inspired by Surrealism art and the Story Stem technique - used by psychologists to study children's inner world, the story of Dry Room follows three adopted children who are the survivors of childhood trauma. Natalie, a victim of child neglect and sexual abuse; Christopher lost his parents in an accident; Jack suffered domestic violence from his alcoholic parents. To escape from their haunting experiences, they embark on a journey of self-discovery and encounter many demons of the past.

Set in a Magritte-styled room, this performance installation gives an intriguing cinematic perspective to a narrative dance, by combining live music and conceptual art. Dry Room is directed and co-designed by Ling and the emerging designer Tong Zhao (Royal Shakespeare Company, Harper's Bazaar 150th Anniversary exhibition, Paris Fashion Week). Live music is played by the talented Spanish experimental cellist Carolina Bartumeu (Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmoniker). Dry Room features Italian minimalist composer Giovanni Sollima's heartbreaking cello solo, Alone, and improvised music by Carolina Bartumeu.

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Giovanni Sollima - Alone.

Zi Ling & Eldarin Yeong

This year, Zi Ling has been accepted as a Candidate Member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours. The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 206th Exhibition at Mall Galleries will show a diversity of styles and techniques, from traditional uses of the medium to more experimental and innovative paintings. Works on display are produced by members of the RI and other artists whose pictures have been selected to hang alongside these by the RI Council, including many young painters using water-soluble media in often new and exciting ways. This is Ling's fourth exhibition with the Institute since 2015. She will have four new paintings included in the exhibition. 

This weekend, in a remarkable first, staff from all four British Tate galleries are to display their own artistic creations at Tate Modern in London. The exhibition, entitled Inside Job, will present works by 135 employees from Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives, including painting, photography and sculptures. Staff whose work will be displayed include curators, art handlers, guards, shop assistants, visitor assistants and people from the finance, restaurant and marketing departments. The exhibition has been partly financed by the Tate Social Fund.

Jing Eldarin Yeong joined the Tate in May 2017 and is showing Dry Room, an associate dance video of a cross-disciplinary piece that she wrote and produced last year for the World Stage Design Quadrennial. It is a collaboration between her Studio and the videographer Jevan Chowdhury. She says: 'To make it an independent piece from the theatre production, we used London cityscape as the backdrop and tried to capture the sense of isolation, self-estrangement and social meaninglessness. It is also about breaking the boundary of theatre, responding to the environment, and exploring non-conventional space.'

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Lizz Wright - Speak Your Heart.

SW3: Delight - Alice Bree, Zi Ling & Brian Mears

SW3 by Alice Bree, Zi Ling and Brian Mears

​EXHIBITION DATES 7 March - 18 March 2017

Chelsea Gallery, Chelsea Old Town Hall London

Opens from Mondays to Saturdays 09:30am - 05:00pm, Sundays 01:00pm - 04:00pm

This exhibition, curated by Eldarin Yeong Studio, showcases the works of three inspiring artists responding to the theme of 'Delight'.

Alice Bree is a ceramic artist trained at the Central School of Art and Design in the 80s. She taught ceramics in the Drawing Schools at Eton College and the University of Hertfordshire for over ten years. Her work has been influenced by Gordon Baldwin with whom she worked at Eton. Her earthenware decorated with engobes produces an organic and colourful surface structure in a distinctive style.

Zi Ling is a visual artist trained at the Chelsea College of Arts and Central Academy of Fine Arts China. Her watercolour portraits and figurative works have been presented at the Royal Insititute of Painters in Water Colours, Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, Sunday Times Watercolour Competition, Columbia Threadneedle Prize, Society of Women Artist, and the National Art Museum of China.

Brian Mears is a self-taught watercolour artist who started painting after his retirement from the Merchant Navy as an engineer. Apart from Nature, he has also been inspired by the works of Caspar Friedrich. His watercolour landscapes, capturing the English countryside with delicacy and detail, have been featured in exhibitions at the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields and at the Menier Gallery, London.

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Carleen Anderson - Maybe I'm Amazed.