First Thursday Lates: Live Performance with Liang-Jung Chen & Drop-in Workshop with Darcey Fleming
Thursday 3rd April 2025 , 6:00pm to 9:00pm
For this First Thursday Late, the exhibition’s two installations will be uniquely activated by their artists. Liang-Jung Chen will work with dance artist Céline HyunJin Barreau for a new live durational performance for her wax installation Ebb is to flow as wax is to wane (2023), lighting its candles and inviting the audience to witness its disappearance. Darcey Fleming will be running a participatory drop-in workshop introducing the weaving techniques that make-up her immersive installation A Room (2024), inviting visitors to turn their hand to weaving.
An afterhours chance to explore this year’s East London Art Prize Shortlist Exhibition (6-9pm), alongside a live performance by Liang-Jung Chen and a drop-in workshop by Darcey Fleming between 7-8:30pm.
Bow Arts’ East London Art Prize celebrates the talent and diversity of art made in east London. This exhibition will present 12 incredible artworks shortlisted for the second iteration of the Prize. Read more about the exhibition here.
For this special late opening, Darcey will be hosting a drop-in workshop introducing the weaving techniques that she uses in her shortlisted work A Room (2024), an immersive installation and a colourful world that she has created to connect and communicate with people. Darcey will be working with you to make small weavings from discarded baling twine that she finds in the countryside and that is donated to her by farmers. Baling twine is used to tie hay bales together, after use it is discarded or added to landfill. You will be able to choose the colours and sizes of the twines you would like to work with during the workshop.
There will be another chance to see Liang’s candle installation lit in the space as a way to celebrate the effort we put into our everyday life and embrace the transience of our existence. Yet Liang’s installation brings a quiet and haunting beauty to these symbols of futility. There is adaptation, as the work changes to fit each space in which it’s installed, and resilience as each candle renews once more after it has burnt out. For the Nunnery’s installation, Chen works with dance artist Céline HyunJin Barreau to put on live durational performances of the installation, inviting the audience to witness its disappearance. The installation will be activated from 7pm. The 15-minute performance will take place at 7.30pm in the Nunnery Gallery.
Rundown of Liang’s performance:
19.00 Installation activation
19.30 Live performance (15 minutes)
21.00 end of installation activation
Drop-in workshop by Darcey:
19.00 – 20.30 Access from the Nunnery Café
The Nunnery Café will be open for the duration of the event, selling drinks and a range of tasty snacks and refreshments.
The development of Liang-Jung Chen’s live performance is supported by The National Culture and Arts Foundation of Taiwan.
More about Liang-Jung Chen
Liang-Jung Chen is an interdisciplinary artist working across drawing, object, installation and performance. Her practice is deeply informed by material culture in anthropological study which leads her to investigate the usage, consumption, creation and trade of artefacts, as well as the behaviours, norms and rituals associated with them. Intrigued by tensions embedded in everyday scenarios, each series of her work scrutinises a specific interaction between a daily object and its user.
Chen is an associate lecturer at Chelsea College of Arts. She also runs ii (initial initiatives), a design and research-driven creative practice, and hardware archive, a virtual home to a random selection of household hardware items found online and around the world. Selected exhibitions include Regarding the Retractability of Boundaries, V&A, London (2024); Have you had breakfast yet? Hweg, Cornwall (2024); On Tenderness and Time, Daniel Katz Gallery, London (2024); Minus20degree Biennale, Flachau (2024); Plus20degree, Galerie Im Traklhaus, Salzburg (2024); Playing House, Hudson Wilder, New York (2023; The Spout and its Churn Rate, Tangent Projects, Barcelona (2022); Local Ware: cooking edition, Oros, Marseille (2021); The egg rack made a disclaimer 2.0, Now Space, Taipei (2021); The egg rack made a disclaimer 1.0, Error22, Tainan (2020); 1 two 1 two, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2020); The Misused 3.0, Coal Drops Yard, London (2020); The Misused 2.0, Taiwan Design Research Institute, Taipei (2020); The Misused 2.0, Piet Hein Eek, Eindhoven (2019).
More about Céline HyunJin Barreau
Céline HyunJin Barreau is a French-Korean Swiss-raised dancer, teacher, and choreographer based in London and Switzerland. Specialising in contemporary improvisation methods, her practice revolves around making dance and performance accessible to everybody and the ongoing research of the sensing body in the creation of real time compositional scores.
Céline began her dance training in ballet with Kim White and performed in 20 professional productions with the Ballet Riviera at the Théâtre de Vevey, Switzerland 2003-2012. She went on to study Neuroscience & Behaviour at Mount Holyoke College (2016) in the US where she continued to perform in ballet and contemporary works along the East Coast in celebrated venues such as at the John. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, D.C., Center for Performance Research, NY, and Green Street Studios, MA.
Upon her return to Europe, Céline studied at the Nuova Officina della Danza on scholarship in Turin, Italy, where she delved into the work of many contemporary artists and their developing practices. Céline has been teaching and choreographing for pre-professional and professional dancers in London since January 2018, as Associate Choreographer and Director of the Lower School at Danceworks Ballet Academy, and as Director of Contemporary Arts Project and Director of the Junior Programme at Ballet Arts Project.
Her current artistic practice is deeply influenced by the Gaga movement language. Since becoming a certified teacher in 2021, Céline produces and leads improvisation workshops around Europe, Asia, and North America to dance companies, dance conservatoires, and dance lovers alike. This regular exchange with artists from different backgrounds informs how she approaches performance in both improvisational and choreographic contexts.
More about Darcey Fleming
Darcey Fleming works across sculpture, photography, performance, and drawing, often featuring the human body. Her practice embodies a dynamic interplay between the lighthearted and the formal, concealing a deeper emotional undercurrent of loneliness and isolation. Traditional techniques and the use of discarded and humble materials are central to her practice. Using overlooked materials such as recycled twine donated to her by local farmers, Fleming creates immersive environments that protect, hide, free and connect her.
Fleming has exhibited across London, including at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2023, where David Remfry stated that Fleming’s work ‘captured the true essence of the show’. She has exhibited at MK Gallery, and has a large public sculpture being released later in 2025. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including W Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Plaster Magazine, Pirelli Calendar, Luncheon Magazine, Print Publication, Vogue Portugal, Vogue Scandinavia, on the cover of EXIT magazine, Altered States Magazine, i-D Magazine, TANK Magazine, The Times and The Telegraph. Her works are in Tim Marlow’s (OBE) private collection, and her commission for Soho Farmhouse is the largest artwork in the company’s art collection. Fleming is an artist in residence on the Lee Alexander McQueen Sarabande Foundation. Alongside her art practice, Fleming has a degree from UCL in Social Sciences and is currently completing an MSc at The London School of Economics which further feeds into her practice.
Access information
The Nunnery Gallery and Café have step-free access throughout from street level, including to the accessible toilet, and is service animal friendly. This venue does not have a hearing loop system. Accessible parking is not available on-site.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility at this venue or event, would like to make us aware of any access requirements that you have in advance of visiting, or would like this information in an alternate format including Easy Read, please email nunnery@bowarts.com or call 020 8980 7774 (Ext. 3)
Access requirements could include things like providing equipment, services or support (e.g. information in Easy Read, speech to text software, additional 1:1 support), adjusting workshop timings (e.g. more break times), adjustments to the event space (e.g. making sure you have a table near the entrance) or anything else you can think of!
Transport Information
Nearest station(s): Bow Road (District and Hammersmith and City lines) is a 6-minute walk away, and Bow Church (DLR) is a 3-minute walk away. Bus: 205, 25, 425, A8, D8, 108, 276, 488 and 8 all service the surrounding area. Bike: Bicycle parking is located at Bow Church Station. The nearest Santander Cycles docking station is at Bow Church Station.
Address: Nunnery Gallery, 181 Bow Road, London, E3 2SJ
Opening hours: Tues-Sun, 10am to 4pm
Read more about the East London Art Prize
East London Art Prize
The East London Art Prize celebrates and promotes the incredible talent and diversity of art made in the cultural hive of east London.
