CO2RE ARTISTS, ARTS & HUMANITIES INITIATIVE

January 2025 - October 2026

University of Oxford, UK

The Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub (CO2RE) has funded a portfolio of projects that bring artistic and creative practice and perspectives, and broader arts and humanistic concerns to bear on Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR). CO2RE is the UK’s national research hub on GGR, supported by the UK Research and Innovation Strategic Priorities Fund. It brings together a multidisciplinary team of some of the UK’s leading academic experts on GGR from six institutions (University of Oxford, University of Manchester, UCL, University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, and University of Bristol) and is backed by the Smith School of Enterprise at University of Oxford.

Yambe has been awarded funding to develop a new interactive VR experience as a part of this initiative.

SHADOW OF UNKNOWING - PERMANENT INSTALLATION

November 2024 - onwards

International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh, UK

Existential cosmic simulation “Shadow of Unknowing” has been permanently installed at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS), Edinburgh from 30 November 2024.

Thank you to the residents from Cove Park and workshop attendees at ICMS - A Global History of Eclipse Reckoning (A Mathematics for Humanity Workshop) and Arithmetic, Geometry, Space and Time - who participated in play-testing.

COVE PARK - ARTIST RESIDENCY

31 October - 14 November 2024

Cove Park, Argyll & Bute, UK

Yambe Tam and collaborator Albert Barbu will be in residence at Cove Park to work on “Shadow of Unknowing” for two weeks, before heading to the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS), Edinburgh for on-site testing and installation of the work.

THE MATHS SUMMIT

12 March 2024

The Science Museum, London, UK

SHADOW OF UNKNOWING - PLAYTESTING SESSION

14 March, 2024

International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh, UK

“Shadow of Unknowing” is an interactive digital artwork created by Visiting Fellow in Visual Arts Yambe Tam during her artist residency at ICMS. It is inspired by deformations of spacetime in and around black holes, visualisations of higher dimensions, and the process of mathematical discovery through collective and individual efforts. Participants are invited to play-test the work-in-progress; these sessions will help shape user interactions and further development of the work.

VISUALISING 4D WORKSHOP

12 January 2024

International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh, UK

This workshop will demonstrate how to render 4D geometry in the game engine Unity. Led by Visiting Fellow in Visual Arts Yambe Tam and creative technologist Albert Barbu, it will cover how to extend 3D object rendering to create 4D objects that can be manipulated in real time. 

The workshop will also explore the limitations of this current method and open up the discussion to improvements and other visualisation approaches.

Participants are invited to submit sketches for 3D and 3D+1 geometries they would like to have visualised in 4D. A selection of these will be modelled for use in the workshop, and in the final artwork produced for the visual arts fellowship. Please send these with 1-2 sentences of context by 22 December to studio@yambetam.com 

VISITING FELLOWSHIP IN VISUAL ARTS

September 2023 - March 2024

International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh, UK

Yambe has been awarded a Visiting Fellowship in Visual Arts at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS), Edinburgh from September 2023 to March 2024.

Over the next six months, she will be visiting ICMS to develop a new interactive digital artwork, informed by exchanges with mathematicians at the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University, and visiting mathematicians from the UK and abroad.

GLACIAL PROCESSION - PERFORMANCE

9 September 2023

Yorkshire Dales National Park, UK

Glacial Procession is an invitation to reawaken slow ways of moving, and consider how this most basic relationship of body to land has more broadly shaped our ways of thinking. This participatory performance is the result of an artist residency with Chrysalis Arts Development in Gargrave, UK.

Yambe will lead a small procession of local North Yorkshire artists through the Yorkshire Dales. Five figures will carry a sculptural walking staff inspired by important ecological links in the region, following the order of the ecological succession they appeared in the landscape, connecting geological and human scales of time. Halfway through the procession, there will be a meditation in nature where participants reflected on questions of efficiency, sustainability, time, desire, and energy.

The procession will meet at the Friends’ Meeting House in Airton, North Yorkshire. Participants are requested to wear simple, loose black clothing.

GILBERT BAYES AWARD EXHIBITION

15 July - 12 August 2023

The Art House, Wakefield, UK

The Art House is delighted to collaborate with The Royal Society of Sculptors (RSS) to stage The Gilbert Bayes Award (2022 Exhibition). The collaborative exhibition brings some of the most outstanding talents working within the field of sculpture production to Wakefield – a place with a renewed reputation as a city of sculpture.

The annual Gilbert Bayes Award provides vital support for early-career sculptors during what can be a difficult transition from their studies to professional practice. The exhibition brings together the 2022 awardees, with final works selected and curated by Thorp Stavri, a London-based curatorial platform, comprising exciting curators Eric Thorp and Nicholas Stavri. The exhibition will bring together an incredibly wide range of themes, from investigations of space and architecture to commentary on culture and social issues, from the environment to other-worldly realities, and much more.

GILBERT BAYES AWARD EXHIBITION

30 May - 8 July 2023

The Royal Society of Sculptors, Dora House, London, UK

The Gilbert Bayes Award 2022 Winners exhibition is on display at Dora House from Monday 30 May to Saturday 8 July, before touring to The Art House in Wakefield.

The 2022 winners were selected by sculptor board members of the Royal Society of Sculptors and guest judge Johnny Messum, Founder and Director of Messums Wiltshire. The exhibition is curated by Thorp Stavri.

Merging Minds is a live multiplayer art installation, that has been co-created as a result of a collaboration between artist/creative technologist duo Yambe Tam & Albert Barbu and the ‘Rethinking Collective Minds’ research strand, part of the Wellcome Centre of Ethics and Humanities (WEH) at the University of Oxford.

The work explores the philosophical questions of how we think and act as collectives; a phenomenon made increasingly more sophisticated through technological advances, brain-computer interfaces and digital social networks. As artists in residence, Yambe Tam & Albert Barbu have developed a bespoke multiplayer art videogame and accompanying sculptural artworks, which are inspired by this line of research at the WEH.

This free public exhibition at Fusion Arts explores the human role in these digital realms, and poses questions such as: Who am I? Where do I end and you begin? What are my responsibilities and rights in a connected and collective space?

A private view and launch event will be held from 6-8pm on Friday 12th May. RSVP required.

MERGING MINDS EXHIBITION

11 - 21 May 2023

Wellcome Centre for Ethics & Humanities @ Fusion Arts, Oxford, UK

INSIDE: A TWO TEMPLE PLACE & THORP STAVRI EXHIBITION - REVIEW

3 May 2023

Trebuchet Magazine, online

A review of exhibition Inside, written by Olga Tarasova, has been published in Trebuchet Magazine. On my new site-specific work Herald, she writes:

“…Yambe Tam’s ‘Herald’, abiding by the main staircase & the gallery, was a personal highlight. ‘Herald’ was an augmented reality chimera transgressing from its physical body sculpted from biopolymer and floating within the ornate structures of the hall. Their bodily shape combined various creatures, which were part of the representation of the building and the owner. Referring to the bomb damage, renovations, and repairs the building had undergone throughout its life, Tam imagined Two Temple Place as a “chimera of different periods and decorative styles.” Arguably, ‘Herald’ also resembled Nathaniel Hitches’ fantastic creatures carved on the external elevations of the building, which transgressed through times. Notably, the combination of mediums – sculptural piece and AR – perfectly corresponds to the numerous signs of fascination with technology carried within the building, such as William Frith’s cupids or the intricately masked safes. Merging the building’s legacy with Tam’s artistic practice, ‘Herald’ is an opening towards a realm where Art and Architecture merge into Intercorporeality. A domain where time frames are blurred, unity between craft and artistic mediums is achieved, and the tangible transcends towards invisible and invisible traces into the tangible.”

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NEW CINEMA DAYS

17 - 21 April 2023

Abandon Normal Devices, Manchester, UK

Yambe will be participating in Abandon Normal Devices’ week-long development lab New Cinema Days, along with artists Grace Ndiritu and Che Applewhaite.

New Cinema Days (NCD) is a new initiative developed by Abandon Normal Devices, produced in partnership with the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University and HOME in Manchester UK. Supported with public funds from Arts Council England,  BFI National Lottery funding, We are UK Film and Granada Foundation, with additional support from the Italian Cultural Institute in London.

CHRYSALIS ARTS DEVELOPMENT - ARTIST RESIDENCY

13 March - 26 May 2023

Chrysalis Arts Development, Gargrave, UK

This spring, Yambe will be artist in residence with Chrysalis Arts Development at The Art Depot, Gargrave on the outskirts of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The residency will be spent developing elements of ritual and performance in her practice, researching the unique local ecology of calcareous grasslands to create a participatory ritual meditation structured around the local ecology, the species of flora and fauna that inhabit it, its landscapes, and human history.

INSIDE: A TWO TEMPLE PLACE & THORP STAVRI EXHIBITION

28 January - 26 February 2023

Two Temple Place, London, UK

Developed from a Summer 2022 research residency at Two Temple Place, this four week exhibition showcases 10 contemporary artists working in sculpture, installation, painting, photography, VR and film. Each artist has produced a brand new body of work in response to the eccentric architecture of Two Temple Place and its complex historic narratives, using the artists’ responses to the building and its ideological challenges to shape work for its rooms.

The exhibition is conceived and curated in partnership with Thorp Stavri (Nicholas Stavri & Eric Thorp), a curatorial platform dedicated to supporting early career contemporary artists.

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BEGIN AGAIN - GROUP EXHIBITION

23 November 2022 - 4 February 2023

Korean Cultural Centre UK, London, UK

The Korean Cultural Centre UK presents ‘Begin Again’ featuring Iden Sungyoung Kim, Kyungmin Sophia Son, Nina Nowak, Sooun Kim, Yambe Tam and Ya-Wen Fu.

‘Begin Again’ creatively reflects upon the notion of transformation and re-imagination. The exhibition is therefore an attempt to look for change in uncertainty, and through constant questioning find innovation in what may seem to be chaos.

With varying perspectives and an array of medium the six artists present their own interpretation to the following questions: Where does one turn for respite in times of unrest? What radiates permanence and clear perspective when uncertainty abounds? How can we imagine a more positive future beyond the realities of the current global experience? Which innovations, be they sonic, visual, sculptural or experiential, allow us to shift our positions, alter our vantage points and question our assumptions? As present-day circumstances dare and compel us into seeing the world not as we previously knew it, the exhibition asks what we might see through different eyes?

WELLCOME CENTRE FOR ETHICS & HUMANITIES (WEH) - ARTIST RESIDENCY

September 2022 - May 2023

WEH, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Researchers from the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities are investigating how new and emerging technologies for collective thinking, sensing, and decision-making are challenging widely accepted notions of what individual and collective agency entails. To collaborate on this research, the arts collective of Yambe Tam and Albert Barbu will be in residence to create a public art installation and immersive computer game experience in response to their residency.

The Rethinking Collective Minds research line aims to show how novel constellations of brains and computers require us to rethink our conceptions of collective entities, and the ethics which accompany them.

Questions we seek to explore include: what does it mean for a Collective Mind to have an identity?; what becomes of the individual in an increasingly connected world?; how can we understand the moral agency of a Collective Mind?

IN HARMONY - GROUP EXHIBITION

11 June - 30 September 2022

Broomhill Estate Sculpture Gardens, Barnstaple, UK

Broomhill Estate Sculpture Gardens is thrilled to announce a partnership with the Royal Society of Sculptors with an inaugural exhibition at the estate, featuring some of the UK’s leading sculptors.

This sculpture exhibition is set within 5 acres of woodland and water gardens within the UK's first and largest UNESCO biosphere. Each artwork has a bespoke planting scheme which embodies the ethos of our gardens ‘Function in Form’ as well as complimenting the artwork’s aesthetic and philosophies.

WASD CURIOS - FESTIVAL

7 - 9 April 2022

Tobacco Dock, London, UK

W.A.S.D. is a new consumer videogame show headed to the UK later this year as part of the London Games Festival 2022. The show will give attendees the opportunity to try some great games, meet some content creators, and hear about new and upcoming games from developers. Confirmed publishers headed to the event include Super Rare Games and Devolver Digital.

W.A.S.D. Curios is a section of the festival focused on indie developers and exhibiting projects that “sit outside the mainstream; that do things a bit differently”, as the show’s announcement explains.

As part of Curios, Yambe will be showing a prototype of experimental VR videogame 7100AD. She will also be speaking on Thursday, 7 April at 13h on the main stage as part of a panel highlighting a selection of Curios games chosen by PCGamesN.

BLACK HOLE MEDITATION

19 November 2021

Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, UK

As part of Attenborough Arts Centre’s Gallery Late programme and Leicester Art Week, Yambe will be performing a set of guided meditation as part of my solo exhibition ‘Cosmic Garden’. Collaborator Dylan Henry Price will be performing a live score through the sound system of audio exciters and feedback microphones that is integrated within the sculptural installation.

The meditation will trace the journey of a star being absorbed by a black hole, with themes of the shadow-self, surrender, and letting go. Sessions will be held in Gallery 2 at 11am and 12pm, and are limited to 12 participants each.

UNCERTAIN DATA - REVIEW

30 September 2021

Corridor 8, online

‘Uncertain Data’ at FACT has been reviewed by Leah Binns on Corridor8. On new work Deep Dive, she writes:

“The real charm of this work is in how it exists outside of conventional, linear time. It was easy to lose myself in its undulating ambience. The thin billowing fabric that surrounds the installation, onto which the seascape is projected in a loose, painterly way, gives it a vague outline, but the VR format makes it feel endlessly expansive. The experiential potential of VR is adopted to transport the user to a new realm outside of the gallery walls’ limits, complete with the nostalgic futurism of 2000s video game aesthetics, and the immersion that comes from being absorbed in the landscape of an open-world game.”

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COSMIC GARDEN - SOLO EXHIBITION

18 September - 21 November 2021

Attenborough Arts Centre, Leicester, UK

Solo exhibition ‘Cosmic Garden’ will be on view at University of Leicester’s Attenborough Arts Centre this autumn. ‘Cosmic Garden’ is the result of a commission from Attenborough Arts Centre that builds upon an earlier installation presented at Barbican Arts Trust in 2019. The immersive sound and sculpture installation imagines a primordial garden that lies in darkness, a dry landscape of volcanic rock crushed and crystallised under the weight of time. Metallic wormholes are suspended in the air above. They sing a ghostly chorus about the infinity of space: a faint siren song whose vibrations draw rippling columns that appear to grow from the mineral pool below. ‘Cosmic Garden’ is a birthplace of protean waveforms that shift between sound, light, and matter, and is a space that the artist invites us to enter and contemplate the transitory nature of things.

An exhibition guide accompanying the show will be available at the gallery.

A private view will be held on Friday, 24 September from 17-20h. Booking essential.

UNCERTAIN DATA - GROUP EXHIBITION

15 September - 3 October 2021

FACT, Liverpool, UK

How do our feelings, emotions and reactions affect how we experience the world? ‘Uncertain Data’ brings together four artists in residence at FACT, whose work exposes the complex layers defining the data that governs us, and questions the trust we place in it.

Four newly commissioned artworks invite us to journey through the depths of the ocean by controlling our emotions in an interactive VR work; to question whether a computer algorithm can tell whether we’re lying or telling the truth; and to uncover hard facts and data to reveal the human stories beneath them - ultimately exposing the uncertainty that our world is built on.

ENTANGLEMENTS IN TIME - GROUP EXHIBITION

6 - 15 August 2021

Lewisham Arthouse, London, UK

Entanglements in Time is an upcoming exhibition at Lewisham Arthouse showcasing UK-based artists Bart Hajduk, Christopher Taylor, Jasmin Märker, Kristina Pulejkova, Margo Trushina, Solveig Settemsdal and Yambe Tam, curated by Kristine Tan and Mariana Lemos.

Shown together for the first time, the works challenge anthropocentric markers of temporality by examining timelines that stretch far beyond the duration of human existence. Neither optimistic nor pessimistic, the artists explore multiple ways of viewing ecological relationships. It is by acknowledging how we cannot extricate ourselves from this ‘mesh’ that we can look at ecology as a whole and acknowledge how we are intimately entangled with every living and non-living thing in time.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Exhibitions Hub, Goldsmiths University of London.

The opening reception will be held on Thursday, 5 August from 18h to 21h.

OCEANS RISING - PUBLICATION

July 2021

Sternberg Press, London & TBA21-Academy

Oceans Rising is a companion reader to the research exhibition “Territorial Agency: Oceans in Transformation” commissioned by TBA21–Academy, an independent oceanic art-science initiative operating out of Ocean Space in Venice. The publication gathers forty-one thoughtful and generous contributions by artists, scholars, scientists, and ocean activists in response to the rapidly changing oceans. Writing from places of conflict and concern, the contributors respond to the magnitude and urgency of ecological devastation, and, most importantly, provide a multitude of narratives that strengthen our knowledge communities and commit to world-making practices from an oceanic perspective.

A conceptual drawing by Yambe Tam for her and collaborator Dylan Henry Price’s contribution to freq_wave is included in the publication.

WHEN IN DOUBT, GO TO A MUSEUM - GROUP EXHIBITION

26 January - 16 May 2021

City Museum of Ljubljana, SI

The City Museum of Ljubljana bets on a bricolage of modern and contemporary artistic approaches to showcase how art collecting can help facilitate Slovenia's cultural projects. To achieve this feat, they have invited Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection (TBA21), Collection Laurent Fiévet, Lah Contemporary, Ovidiu Sandor Collection, and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo to participate in the exhibition When in Doubt, Go to a Museum opening January 26th.  

The artworks lent by the TBA21 collection were part of How to Tread Lightly. st_age expanded, an exhibition, curated by Soledad Gutiérrez. It was a physical incarnation of the first season of st_age, an online commissions initiative that reframes the challenges raised during the Covid-19 crisis. The five projects traveling to Ljubljana urge for ecological transformation and social responsibility, inviting us to imagine possible futures based on environmental concerns and ancestral forms of knowledge. 

JERWOOD ARTS / FACT DIGITAL FELLOWSHIP

October 2020 - September 2021

FACT, Liverpool, UK

Yambe has been awarded the Jerwood Arts/FACT Digital Fellowship, an inaugural residency programme, alongside artists Angela YT Chan and Tessa Norton.

The Jerwood Arts / FACT Fellowship brings 3 distinct creative voices into the organisation annually to focus on their practice and professional development. Each of the UK-based artists are invited to respond to our current programme themes. For 2020-21 the programme theme is The Living Planet.