To Be Here With You

Southwark Park Galleries, London | April–May 2023

Collaborative curatorial project | Royal College of Art

To Be Here With You explored ritual as a form of embodied knowledge-making, considering how hospitality, attentiveness and collective participation might operate as curatorial methodologies.

Developed collaboratively with Southwark Park Galleries as part of the Royal College of Art's MA Curating Contemporary Art programme, the project took the form of five free artist-led public workshops rather than a conventional exhibition.

Each gathering began with a slow walk through Southwark Park before continuing into guided activities in the gallery's Salter Space. Through shared movement, participation and moments of reflection, the programme explored how curatorial practice might create conditions for connection and collective meaning-making.

The project informed my understanding of curating as a relational practice, grounded not only in the presentation of artworks but also in the cultivation of presence, trust, care and shared experience.

Curatorial team Marjian Tsatsaros Tyagi, Julia Jiang, Ana Escoto, Youjia Qian, Chuqing Feng, Caspar Danuser, Esther Liu, Sophie Nowakowska and Nathan Yeomans.

Participating artists Gail Dickerson, Rie Nakajima, Alice May, Rudzani Molaya, Yewande 103, Hannah Lees and May Hands.

Photography Sophie Nowakowska and Esther Liu.

Colourful yarns, textiles, branches and other natural materials arranged on an outdoor table for a collective making workshop led by Hannah Lees and May Hands as part of To Be Here With You (2023) at Southwark Park Galleries, London.
Two participants working with and combining natural and foraged materials during an artist-led workshop by Hannah Lees and May Hands as at Southwark Park Galleries, London, with plants and workshop supplies arranged nearby.
Assemblages of branches, leaves, ribbons and foraged natural materials arranged by Hannah Lees and May Hands, displayed together during To Be Here With You at Southwark Park Galleries, London.
Participants creating a collaborative mural during Alice May's workshop for To Be Here With You at Southwark Park Galleries, London, exploring their creative connection to the park and one another.
Participants creating experimental musical sculptures using everyday materials during a sound workshop led by Rie Nakajima for To Be Here With You at Southwark Park Galleries, London.