21 February - 31 March 2022
Online
We are pleased to announce an online exhibition of work by British Council Net//Work Residency artists Laura Andreato, Abdul Halik Azeez, Wajeeha Batool and Wendy Teo.

Click here to see the exhibition on our Wysing Broadcasts site.

The exhibition will draw on the development of the artists’ digital research during the residency. From games to interactive audio and film, the exhibition will present these very different practices through the connections and reciprocity formed between the artists. 

Net//Work was a four-week residency that ran from 25 October - 19 November 2021 developed in partnership with British Council offering artists a period of reflection, research, practice, skills exchange and professional networking opportunities focused on digital artistic practices and technologies. 

The online residency honed points of connection between four very exciting practices. The sessions in the residency provided critical support in the form of mentoring, group conversations, problem solving surgeries, guest talks and reading groups. These sessions were used to test ideas, tease out solutions and suggest new possible directions for these artists' projects. 

Wysing worked with artists Laura Andreato, Abdul Halik Azeez, Wajeeha Batool and Wendy Teo, with Anna Bunting-Branch as Artist Advisor.

Digital Arts Studios hosted Abshar Platisza, André Schütz, Wisrah Villefort, and Kesara Ratnavibushana. Artists took part in a programme of activities including peer-to-peer exchange, mentoring, group critiques and presentations.

British Council in partnership with Wysing Arts Centre and Digital Arts Studios

Laura Andreato is a visual artist and art educator, set and costume designer. Laura graduated in Visual Arts at São Paulo University, holds a master's degree in Visual Poetics and is currently pursuing her doctorate.

Laura has exhibited in sole and collective shows in museums and galleries both within Brazil and globally. Prominent exhibitions include Pensamiento Salvaje, part of Bienal Sur (Buenos Aires, 2017); Le Royale (La Maudite, Paris, 2014), Deslize (Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro, 2014) and Paradiso, Museu de Arte de São Paulo -MASP (São Paulo, 2012).

Laura has also participated in the Pivô Pesquisa Program 2019, 13th artistic residency at Red Bull Station 2017 and in 2018 she nominated for the Pipa Award. In 2014 she was in residence at Cité des Arts, selected by the Institut Français.

Abdul Halik Azeez is a new media artist based in Colombo Sri Lanka with a background in journalism and critical discourse analysis. His work reflects on technologies of power as mediated through contemporary culture, lived experiences and media.

Transformations within Sri Lanka’s post-war urban landscape is a central archive from which Azeez draws, working across a range of mediums such as photography, video, digital interventions, writing, installation and publication.

In 2019 he co-founded The Packet, an independent community of artists which works with publication, digital interventions and site specific installations. He has held solo exhibitions at the Saskia Fernando Gallery, Colombo (2014 & 2021) and exhibited widely both locally and internationally including at the Ishara Foundation, Dubai (2019 & 2021), the Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa (2016, 2019 & 2020), The Art Foundation, Athens (2017), Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2017), the Karachi Biennale (2019) and Colomboscope (2015, 2016, 2017 & 2019). 

Wajeeha Batool is an artist based in Lahore, Pakistan. Wajeeha earned her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Visual Arts at the Beacon House National University (BNU) where she was subsequently a teacher.

Wajeeha investigates the relationship between fantasy and reality, drawing on her experience to layer and create systematic chaos in her work. Her use of both organic forms and pixelated shapes serve as reference to living organisms as well as the world of technology. These patterns work together in harmony, often superimposed upon the other, to create a reverie of unpredictable movement and transparent effects.

Wajeeha’s artwork has been shown in exhibitions in Alhamrah Art Gallery, Lahore, Karachi Art Summit, Sanat Initiative Art Gallery Karachi: Reading Between the Lines, Taseer Gallery, Lahore: Domestic Bliss and Antidote Gallery Dubai. She also won a second place award for Arts Contest from Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Title: Smoking Kills. 

Wendy Teo is a Malaysian based artist, UK ARB/RIBA Chartered Architect, Curator, Researcher and Tutor. Wendy believes an innovative, cutting-edge approach to design and making has capacity to revitalise craftsmanship of the region; stating social-culture dialogue as the driving force behind her design pursuit.

In her award winning design practice Wendy Teo Atelier, she designed a range of nature and culture inspired interactive sculptures, furniture, architectural installation and publication. With Borneo Laboratory, Wendy currently focuses on developing a series of projects that are inspired by the crafts language and materials found from abundant landscape and cultural scape of Borneo.

Wendy Teo’s projects were endorsed by a number of international awards such as Holcim Sustainable Next Generation Award (First Prize), Archiprix, and Threadneedle Prize. Her recent furniture design was selected as a finalist in ‘Asia Design Award’ 2018. Wendy has shown in prominent exhibitions such as 2013/14 Archilab ‘Naturalising Architecture’ exhibition curated by Pompidou Center director Frédéric Migayrou and FRAC Orlean Director Marie-Ange Brayer.