Yuen Fong Ling
Yuen Fong Ling is an artist and curator based at Bloc Studio, and researcher and Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University. He graduated from the MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2007 and completed the Fine Art PhD at University of Lincoln in 2016, titled “A Body of Relations: Reconfiguring the Life Class”. Ling has a socially-engaged and performance-based art practice.
Recent Projects Towards Memorial (2019-ongoing) explores the omitted history of gay socialist activist Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) and his partner George Merril (1891-1928), through the remaking, gifting and wearing of sandals once designed and handmade by Carpenter. The Human Memorial (2020-ongoing) explores the potent symbol of the empty plinth to prompt questions about the decolonisation of public space and what occupies the spaces of monuments and statues to Britain’s colonial history.
In September 2020, Ling was selected as a commissioner for the Sheffield Race Equality Commission, a non-partisan strategic assessment of the nature and extent of racism and racial inequality in all aspects of Sheffield civic life.
Image 1: “The Human Memorial” (2020-ongoing), mobile plinth
Image 2: “Towards Memorial” (2019-ongoing), Noble & Wylie, film still by Picture Story Productions
Image 3: “Towards Memorial” (2019-ongoing), The Friends of Edward Carpenter, film still by Picture Story Productions
Profile Image credit: India Hobson