Organizer Information
Kakilang is a non-profit arts organisation based in London, championing East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) artists and communities. Its name means "one of us" in the Hokkien dialect, reflecting the sense of kinship and connection it fosters within and beyond ESEA communities. Kakilang supports work across art forms and empowers creatives to develop ambitious, critically-engaged projects that are not reduced to racial identity. The organisation runs public programming including the Kakilang Festival and Creative Lab, a recurring artist development programme hosted at Shoreditch Town Hall, alongside exhibitions, interviews, and reviews centered on East and Southeast Asian-led work in London.
Title & Description
zero material — Open Call
Kakilang will work with one selected artist with a conceptual or visual arts-based practice to develop a new body of work, culminating in a public presentation in spring 2027. The format stays open, shaped by the artist's chosen medium and approach. The programme is guided by the "zero material" manifesto, which asks what forms of art-making remain relevant in an age of scarcity and excess, proposing unorthodox approaches — hacking, smuggling, piggybacking — as artistic practice informed by diasporic experience.
Theme
zero material — the programme recognises that each material, tangible or intangible, carries its own agency awaiting creative exercise. The resulting artwork may take the form of a gesture, a situation, an infrastructure, a digital trace, a collective action, or even an administrative process — the materiality that already penetrates and accumulates in everyday life. Kakilang is not looking for a fixed medium or a finished idea, but a way of rethinking how art gets made, with a particular interest in how diasporic experience shapes the way things are made.
Categories
- Visual Arts
- Multiple Disciplines
- Research
Eligibility
- UK-based artists of ESEA (East and Southeast Asian) heritage
- Must have an arts practice in conceptual or visual arts of at least two years
- Must have the right to live and work in the UK between August 2026 and June 2027
- Must be available in March 2027 for the public presentation
- Duos or collectives may apply, but must nominate one leading artist as the application's representative
Program Benefits & Awards
- An artist fee of £2,500 and a production budget of £800
- A supported public presentation in spring 2027
- Artist development support, including tailored workshops, one-to-one mentoring, and institutional visits
- Hot-desking space at Kakilang's central London office between August 2026 and June 2027, up to 3 days per week, if required
Application Fee
None
How to Apply?
Online Application
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 10 August 2026
- Shortlist Announcement: 12 August 2026
- Shortlisted Artist Interviews (online): 18 August 2026
- Selected Artist Announcement: 1 September 2026
- Project Development: September – December 2026
- Concept Consolidation: January – February 2027
- Public Presentation: March 2027
Location
Kakilang's central London office, United Kingdom
Additional Details
- Selection Panel: Rhine Bernardino (Independent Artist and Curator), Liang-Jung Chen (Associate Artistic Director, Kakilang), Ruth Holdsworth (Co-CEO, Kakilang), and Howl Yuan (Artistic Director & Co-CEO, Kakilang)
- Applicants who find the standard application format difficult are invited to get in touch before July 22, 2026, with programme lead Liang-Jung Chen (liang@kakilang.org.uk, 0207 287 1052); Kakilang states it aims to offer as much access support as possible and welcomes a conversation about applicants' needs before applying
- Programme identity designed by Can Yang