We had the good fortune of connecting with Sihan Ling and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sihan, what do you attribute your success to?

For me, having success in my artist career is equal to occupying an irreplaceable niche in an ecosystem of art. This means I need to be unique and needed. To stay unique, it is vital to keep the spirit of innovation to sustain the branding of my art practice. Hence, I am required to continue making progress in new works. And to keep being needed, I’m obliged to keep the flow of my works and stay connected with the economy around me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

Art helps me evolving a system to understand and interpret the world. From a very early age, I was portrayed by the people around me as being too sensitive and different. This was because I see things in different lens and a pay attention to many details, and it was hard for me to communicate with others about it. Gradually, I grew a conception that the world is gigantic and unknowable, thus, a sad place to dwell in. Making art allows me to be happy. And this happiness is to have a sense of certainty about my own growth. By making art, whether in any media, I’ve managed to make sense of the information that I gather from the world, and externalise them into physical forms. Sometimes it feels like sinking anchors into the sea, into the wave of the uncertain world. In this way, I managed to develop my own style to communicate and reconcile with the world.

In my art, I tried to create absurd spectacles that are magnified from the trivial stuff that we ignore from daily life. My art works take forms in strange objects and performance. It can be a pair of glowing hand with all the fingers crossed, an ID card buried into the wall by ointment for sports injury, or a bunch of people tidying up inflatable punchbag covered with fitted silk sheet. But fundamentally, behind various forms, my ways of organising my thoughts are largely benefited by Michel Foucault’s ideas on Technologies of Self/Subjectivity. Although I couldn’t recall the specific words after layers of translation, but I remember his study about the genealogy of ancient techniques by the philosophers and theologists to govern their own thinking and instinct. This inspired me to base my art production on my journal of archived thoughts in response to the world around me. The journaling helps me to build up a parameter to measure the arbitrary information that I receive from the world. When I was burdened by overwhelming ideas and inspirations second by second, it was like a cure.

Nowadays, living in the city that I dreamed for, and doing the things that I’m good at, I feel that I have gained a good balance and I’m ready for a new phase of practice. If there is any advice that I can provide for the past or future me, I want to say, that many times in front of a big problem, do not haste to react. The trick is to allow enough space and time for the errors to happen and to be internalised into a sustainable solution.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Where I mostly commute in recent few years is in East & South London. For a week-long trip, I would recommend a few areas in the neighbourhoods I’ve lived and worked in. Each spot deserves a few days to be fully explored in a chill pace 🙂

Around New Cross, you can find a lot of venues for art event and nice local cuisines. The Goldsmiths CCA is the nearest art institution which continues to host remarkable shows for conceptual art. And a few steps north, the South London Gallery is also quite prestigious. If you’re lucky, you might be able to visit Silkroad Uighur restaurant without reservation. But in this area, you will never have trouble finding good food with good price. On the New Cross road, there are many accessible good restaurants including After Hours for modern Caribbean food, Beirut Canteen for fine halal wraps… For good coffee places, there is the Wakey Wakey and locally renowned Mughead. And if you are searching for good vibes in English pubs, I recommend the Royal Albert and the Birdsnest. The latter also sells tasty juicy burgers, amongst which my favourite is the steak burger with Stilton cheese or jalapeño. And if you cannot eat meat or cheese, the THUMKA nearby sells refreshing Indian fusion small plates until late.

Peckham is a community hub for indigenous and creative culture, and the Copeland Park is the centre of it. It is a Plaza with many art spaces, small businesses, and pubs. For art events, you could go to the Copeland Gallery, South Kiosk, Bassey building, etc. For a few drinks, you could go to Social, Kanpai and Jumbi which also sells delicious square pizza with truffle. For small bites, you could find various fusion styled cuisine in the Market Stall Peckham. And if you are seeking for a proper meal, you can get impressive Turkish dishes in the Flamin Mangal on the main road.

Whitechapel area is where I spend most of my time nowadays. If I’m having an iconic day trip in East London, early one morning, I would have a walk from the Shadwell Pond to the Saint Katherine‘s Dock, do some birdwatching and then walk back to Aldgate East. After having a coffee and some breakfast in the Dulce Coffee London, I would spend an hour or two in the Whitechapel Gallery. For lunch, my best choice would be either the EFES, a safe Turkish choice, or Nanna’s Biryani, an authentic Bangladesh restaurant serving rare beef delicacies, and their Kachi biryani is a local legend. In the afternoon, I would go on a round-trip visiting some independent art spaces nearby, including Carlos and Ishikawa, Nicolleti, Public Gallery, The Cell Project, etc. But if the weather is not so good, I can do some shopping in Tian Tian, and then watch a film in the Curzon film centre. For dinner, if I’m by myself, I would probably go to Amber, a tasty Mediterranean restaurant with good design. If I’m with friends, I would take them to the Lahore Kebab House, and introduce to them the signature dish, Nirhari.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

I am grateful to my family who supported me faithfully in my calling of making art. Before I came to UK to pursue my art career in a culturally open-minded environment, the path of becoming an artist was an unconventional thing in the neighbourhood and accompanied with misunderstanding. My natural reaction was to reject the homogenous environment around me. But it was not an acceptable choice to be individualised and different in that universal education system, so I had to be home-schooled. And this later became a challenge for the communication between me and my parents. I still remember that one time, on a road trip to Kawagarbo, a snow mountain in Tibet, my father and I had a big argument, and he left me below that mountain to work in a little inn and earn the money to travel back. However, after a month when I was finally about leaving that place, I realised that he left some money for the locals to take care of me. Despite the countless frustration of understanding me, my parents developed their own style and guided me responsibly during my extra rebellious adolescence.  Thank you, the guardians of my life, for your patience and wisdom that I shall pass to the next generation of the family.

While launching my art career, I received a lot of helps from a mentor. John Chilver is a professor at Goldsmith, University of London, and is the one who taught me during uni. During his tutorials, John was a wise teacher with great sense of humour, and he passed the knowledge to me in a charming and profound way. Even after graduation, we remained contact, and he continued to provide me valuable advice about the art market, different economies of London art communities, and the publication system, etc. In the early times when I just graduated from uni, I was eagerly seeking for venues to present my works and to gain publicity. It is John who contacted me and arranged some of my major exhibitions in his own projects and gallery. In result, I’m now able to set foot in the London art world and sustain my practice with solid grounding.

To survive as an artist in London, it is less about thriving as a lonely ranger, but more about coexisting in the communities. I’m truly grateful of being in peer groups that are mutually supportive and productive. Hence, I want to give a shout out to my friends who supported me to establish my career in London. Nicola Arthen and his partner Alondra, who are wise friends of mine, have been great companion for me during the time of Covid. They kept inviting me to their house dinners with genuinely homely vibe and embraced me in a lifestyle with quality and dignity. James Tabbush, a senior alumnus from Goldsmith, offered me great insights in localising my practice in London, and involved me in organising community event for peer artists. And Rory Beard, a faithful friend who is both reliable and funny, helped me actualising tons of projects and inspired me with resilient spirit of humour. Thank you, my friends, for your invaluable input that encouraged me to maintain vigorous and creative.

Website: https://nillgooo.us

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nillgooo/

Image CreditsKsenia Burnasheva

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