Now open: discover a collection of new, immersive artworks by Yaloo and Sian Fan - two artists using creative technology to tell stories of ancestry and self-discovery in a hyperconnected world.
![SOCIALS 1080px 72dpi FACT My Garden My Sanctuary July 2022 Image by Rob Battersby 5](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_wideNoCrop/SOCIALS-1080px-72dpi-FACT-My-Garden-My-Sanctuary-July-2022-Image-by-Rob-Battersby-5.jpg?v=1721744082)
Part of the Radical Ancestry season
Rites of passage define key moments as we drift from one stage in life to the next. Our identities glitch and flow as the influences of media, culture and technology collide with our ancestry. In My Garden, My Sanctuary artists Sian Fan (UK) and Yaloo (South Korea) submerge us in watery worlds from which they reclaim their cultural identities and remake their coming-of-age stories.
![SOCIALS 1080px 72dpi FACT My Garden My Sanctuary July 2022 Image by Rob Battersby 5](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_extraLargeNoCrop/SOCIALS-1080px-72dpi-FACT-My-Garden-My-Sanctuary-July-2022-Image-by-Rob-Battersby-5.jpg?v=1721744082)
![SOCIALS 1080px 72dpi FACT My Garden My Sanctuary July 2022 Rob Battersby 2](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_extraLargeNoCrop/SOCIALS-1080px-72dpi-FACT-My-Garden-My-Sanctuary-July-2022-©Rob-Battersby-2.jpg?v=1721744082)
The artists present a series of large-scale animated installations and interactive gaming environments using commodified symbols of East-Asian culture that have become commonplace globally. These symbols include K-pop dance routines, the use of seaweed in food and beauty products, hypersexualised female avatars and spiritual icons stripped of their religious significance. Yaloo and Sian Fan take these symbols and remix them to build playful new worlds.
Curated by Carrie Chan, our 2022 Curator-in-Residence, the exhibition challenges the conventional ways we define our backgrounds to embrace identities that are more fluid.
"My residency has enabled me to explore diverse curatorial approaches in narrating stories on ancestry, identities and belonging."
Carrie Chan, Curator-in-Residence
Yaloo presents a mystical underwater garden of seaweed: an immersive journey through ancient beliefs and family history. The installation explores how Korean rituals and traditions have been branded and repackaged as products for consumption. Yaloo reclaims these symbols and weaves them together with the experiences of three generations of her maternal family to forge her own path.
Above the water’s surface, Sian Fan’s world takes shape as a lotus flower-filled sanctuary. The interactive artwork challenges romanticised ideas of East-Asian culture and standards of femininity found in anime and fantasy games.
Together, the artists' works create a space for discovery and dialogue. For them, the blossoming of new, fluid identities begins by exploring our roots and history. This passage to self-realisation can be hard, and at times painful, but ultimately enlightening and joyful.
"This exhibition gives me the opportunity to bring two acclaimed digital media artists to Liverpool – a city with a strong history of Asian immigrants and diaspora.”
Carrie Chan, Curator-in-Residence
Deity (2022)
Sian Fan is an artist based in the UK who works across sculpture, performance, film and animation to consider the ways in which virtual and image technologies affect our physical experiences. Deity is a digital performance that combines live motion capture with physical movement.
by Sian Fan
Lotus Root (2022)
Sian Fan combines movement, the body and 3D animation to explore the interdependency between people and technology. Lotus Root is an installation exploring ancestry and identity in the digital age.
by Sian Fan
Birthday Garden (2022)
Yaloo is an artist from South Korea who uses digital media and technology to create interactive artworks. In Birthday Garden, Yaloo invites us into an immersive underwater garden inspired by coming- of-age stories and symbols of Korean culture.
by Yaloo
![Yaloo Seaweed Garden 2019 ACC ACI Photo by Sarah Kim Courtesy of the artist 1](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_mediumCrop/Yaloo-Seaweed-Garden-2019-ACC-ACI-Photo-by-Sarah-Kim-Courtesy-of-the-artist-1.jpeg?v=1721744083)
Special Event
Exhibition Opening: My Garden, My Sanctuary
FACT
Join us after hours to celebrate the opening of our new exhibition My Garden, My Sanctuary.
![FACT KIERANI 07 24 91](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_mediumCrop/2439606/FACT_KIERANI_07_24-91.jpg?v=1721743231)
Tour
Daily Tours
FACT
Come along to a daily tour for a brief introduction to FACT and our current exhibitions.
![Summer Social: Aurora & Arrival City at Toxteth Town Hall, July 2018. Photo by Brian Roberts.](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_mediumCrop/0002_Summer-Social-print-6756.jpg?v=1721744083)
Special Event
The Hardy Lotus
FACT
Join Carrie Chan and Sufea Mohamad Noor for The Hardy Lotus, a communal meal documenting the experience of East and South East Asian communities in the UK.
![Do Something Saturdays](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_mediumCrop/1365137/DSC_7267.jpg?v=1721744083)
Families, Workshop
Do Something Saturdays
Every Saturday, excluding September 3, 2022 September 17, 2022 October 1, 2022
FACT
Back by popular demand, Do Something Saturdays returns to afternoons - giving you more time to explore and play!
![Zinzi Minott Fi Dem V A Redemptive Song 2022 Installation view at FACT Image by Drew Forsyth WEB RES 8](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_mediumCrop/Zinzi-Minott-Fi-Dem-V-A-Redemptive-Song-2022.-Installation-view-at-FACT.-Image-by-Drew-Forsyth-WEB-RES-8.jpg?v=1721744083)
![Yaloo Homo Paulinella 2020](https://cdn.fact.co.uk/uploads/images/_mediumCrop/Yaloo-HomoPaulinella-2020.png?v=1721744084)
My Garden, My Sanctuary Poems
Whilst making their work for My Garden, My Sanctuary, artists Yaloo and Sian Fan wrote poems to express their emotions. Read their poems in full to get closer to their works.
by FACT
Activity Sheet: My Garden, My Sanctuary
Discover an underwater seaweed garden, learn a K-Pop dance and unlock interactive Instagram filters in this family-friendly activity sheet. Specially designed for families to explore our exhibition, My Garden, My Sanctuary.
by FACT
Watch: K-pop Dance Tutorial
Become a K-pop dance sensation! Learn a fun K-pop dance routine alongside The University of Liverpool's K-pop Society.
by FACT
Listen: K-Podcast
BTS! Red Velvet! How is K-pop reaching all corners of the world? Discover the power of the popular Korean music genre, K-pop, in a special K-Podcast. Join our special guest panellists to explore what K-Pop means to them.
by FACT
Supporters
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