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 ‚æ‘„å½±å¥– [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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