Join us on Wednesday 12th August, 6:30–8:30pm for The Feminist Texts We Can’t Read: How Non-Translation Silences East Asian Movements, a reading and discussion group with artists Soo Hyun Lee and Riley Tu.
This session explores East Asian feminist thought that remains largely unavailable to English-speaking audiences.
Drawing on key texts from Japan and South Korea, the session asks how translation shapes the circulation of feminist knowledge, and what is lost when influential writing remains untranslated. Through excerpts from works by Ueno Chizuko, Jinsook Kim and Soo Hyun Lee, participants will consider how colonial histories, linguistic hierarchies and publishing structures shape which feminist ideas, histories and political struggles become visible in global conversations.
The session also introduces feminist organising in South Korea following the 2016 Gangnam Station murder, including the sticky-note memorials that transformed public space into a site of collective testimony and protest.
Alongside these texts and case studies, participants will examine the geopolitics of translating both fiction and non-fiction, exploring how different forms of writing carry cultural, political and emotional meaning across languages. Together, these materials offer insight into feminist resistance in East Asian contexts while opening broader questions about translation, visibility and transnational solidarity.
Structured as a collective reading and discussion, the event invites participants to read, reflect and exchange ideas. No prior knowledge is required. All reading materials will be provided and introduced during the session.
This free event will take place at Auto Italia. To book, follow the link here or email info@artworkassociation.org
Soo Hyun Lee (b.1998, Seoul) works across painting and performance, exploring how images and social symbols historically perceived as soft and fragile can reclaim their power and transform into tools of resistance. Her practice also examines how the politics of translation and interpretation can shape or limit the visibility of social struggles in non-English-speaking countries. She graduated with an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths with a Distinction and has exhibited internationally. Recent exhibitions include: Glass Grass and Silver Forest, sothu residency, Mallorca (duo, 2026); My Soft Hands Became a Sword One Day, sothu, Zurich (solo, 2025); Malerei, akku Kunstplattform, Lucerne (2025); The God is Selfish and Trees are Wise, NORITO, London (2025); and Daphne’s Daughters, MEY Gallery, Los Angeles (2025).
Riley Tu works with animation and sound, exploring how algorithmic systems shape bodies and emotions within digital environments. Drawing on feminist theory and posthuman thought, she examines technology’s mediation of gender and subjectivity through cyborg identities. Using 3D animation and speculative narratives, Tu creates spaces where digital bodies negotiate systems of surveillance and control, foregrounding moments in which emotion and excess disrupt computational logic. Her work considers how language and intelligence are reconfigured within artificial systems, where human and non-human agencies intersect and identity remains fluid. She holds an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University of London. Her work has been presented internationally including Reclaim The Frame at BFI Southbank, Salón ACME, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Kyiv International Short Film Festival, and has been supported by Arts Council England, Taiwan Ministry of Culture, and National Culture and Arts Foundation.