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Hester is an artist-researcher based in London and Beijing. Her hybrid practice explores histories at the margins of visibility, working across sound, moving image, and archival interventions.

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She draws on speculative and collaborative methods to make visible hidden narratives shaped by displacement, racialised labour, and migration. Recent works have focused on port cities and their colonial entanglements, including her long term research into the secret deportation of Chinese seamen in 1940s Liverpool through the mixed media project <The Undesirables>.

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In 2022, Hester co-founded Sine Screen, an independent curatorial collective committed to showcasing moving image works from across East and Southeast Asia. The project opens up space for critical dialogue around dominant representations of ESEA cultures and histories, and has been supported by the British Film Institute, Film Hub North, and Arts Council England.

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Selected Exhibitions & Awards

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2025

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Erinnerungen an Heute / Memories of Today festival [screening], Gemeinde Koln, Cologne

Voicing the Archive [exhibition], esea contemporary, Manchester

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2024

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Ghost Dance [group exhibition], Jimei x Arles Photography Festival, Xiamen

All Our Stories: Migration and the Making of Britain [group exhibition], Migration Museum, London

Screening Rights Festival [screening], MAC Birmingham

From (Counter-)Archives to Activation [exhibition], esea contemporary, Manchester

Seeing Double, part of Foreign Bodies [exhibition], Exeter

Three Shadows Photography Award ä¸‰å½±å ‚摄影奖 [exhibition], Beijing

New Contemporaries [group exhibition], Camden Arts Centre, London 

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2023

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New Contemporaries [group exhibition], Grundy Gallery, Blackpool

Royal Photographic Society IPE Awards (shortlisted)

Screening as part of Liverpool Independent Biennial [screening], Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool 

OUTPUT Gallery Photography Open [exhibition], The Bridewell Studios, Liverpool

Lucky Number 8  [group exhibition], The Bomb Factory, London

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2022

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Current Obsessions, MA graduate show, London College of Communication, 2022 

BBC New Creatives showcase  [group exhibition], ICA, 2022

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Social media handle

Ig: @_retseh @sine_screen

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Contact: hesteryangishere@gmail.com

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