This essay published as part of Caught in the Middle, Jack Ky Tan’s 2025 research residency at Camden Art Centre curated by Nisha Matthew. This research project has aimed to explore the history, politics and the visual and legal aesthetics of the ‘Asian Colonial Middle’, a term coined by Tan to describe the colonial conditions and structures created by the British Empire East India Company.
The 4000 word essay is presented in a creased, 8-panel sheet, which is perforated to allow the reader to decide on whether to display it as a poster or tear the sheet into the pages to form a booklet. Folded size 24 x 17cm. Full sheet size 67 x 48cm.
Artist biography
Jack Ky Tan is an artist who works across performance, sculpture, installation, creative policy writing and institutional critique. His practice is an ongoing exploration of social justice that blurs the boundaries between, art, law, governance, and consultancy. Looking toward alternative cosmologies and knowledge systems, he is interested in interrogating the legacies of empire with a particular interest in Commonwealth and Tropical epistemologies of resistance. By questioning how embedded societal structures form our laws and guide our behaviours, his work attempts to rethink our entanglement with the human and more-than-human world and looks towards alternative ways of living and working.
Recent projects and exhibitions include: Break the Mould, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2026); Guest Curator of Organisational Development at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (2024–present), Curatorial Research Residency at Camden Art Centre, London (2025); Special Adviser to the Contemporary Visual Art Network London (2022–present), and Visionaries Fellow on Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Emerging Futures Programme (2024–2026).
Designed by: Objectif
Printed by: KOPA
ISBN: 978-1-915058-27-0