In Summer 2022, we started our search for Whitechapel Gallery’s first Young Writer in Residence. Emerging writers aged 18-24 were invited to apply, and submit a short original piece of writing which responded to The London Open as part of their application.
Yulin Huang was appointed as the gallery’s inaugural Young Writer in Residence. She completed her residency from September – December 2022, where she spent time researching and responding to our Autumn season of exhibitions, developing her writing practice through experimentation and career development meetings, and creating a new piece of writing to mark the culmination of the residency.
With thanks to all those who applied, and to our selection panel which included journalist Precious Adesina, writer Gabriella Egavalle, and Whitechapel Gallery staff.
Yulin Huang is a London-based Taiwanese/Kiwi artist who relishes creative writing in her expanded painting practice. With an unsparingly honest voice, she confronts the human condition.
Winning Submission
The daunting abyss of being an ‘emerging artist’ dawned on me yet again whilst experiencing The London Open 2022. After recently graduating from six years of art education in London, the pressure of surviving the art world came crashing down like a slow build of a promised wave. Sometimes living feels more like surviving; here I communicate the desire for total oblivion in the face of staying afloat – as an artist and witness to endless global crises. I reference several pieces from the exhibition that ignited this yearning for nothingness, the mundane, but also the cliché longing to be remembered even in this proposed oblivion.
Amelia Oakley, Curator: Youth Programmes, chats to Yulin two months into her residency, which runs from September – December 2022, to see what she’s been up to so far.
Yulin Huang, the former Young Writer in Residence at Whitechapel Gallery, and fine artist Natasha Brown came together for an evening in the spirit of the approaching Christmas season.
‘I had been confronted with the word oblivion again. I felt it had probably always surrounded me, peered at me with disdain as I began to forget it. Its wily fingers had no form, but were cool to the touch. they fit the spaces between mine perfectly. but it was a clinging. I am so tired of clinging.’
A new piece of writing by Yulin Huang to mark the conclusion of her time as Young Writer in Residence at Whitechapel Gallery. From September-December 2022 Yulin’s residency saw her spend time working on her writing practice, meeting staff from across the gallery to discover more about pathways in the arts and our current and past exhibitions.
