BA, Hunan University; MA Loughborough University; MA, PhD University of York

Vivian Sheng is a feminist art historian working on contemporary transnational art and visual culture. Her research investigates the intricate interrelation between women, domesticity and artistic practice in association with growing international travel and cross-cultural exchange, which significantly challenge any stable and absolute conception of home and place. Her current book project, Art, Women and Fantasies of ‘Homemaking’: Affective Domesticity, Embodied Habitation and Transcultural (Dis)identification, examines the practices of six women artists—Yin Xiuzhen, Fiona Tan, Mona Hatoum, Shen Yuan, Nikki S. Lee and On-Megumi Akiyoshi—from vastly different geopolitical backgrounds and working conditions, exploring the role of art in mediating issues of gender, place, identity and belonging. This research responds to the urgent need to reconsider women’s contributions to the constitution and representation of sociocultural and geopolitical realities within the international art world beyond Euro-American centres. It introduces new content and theoretical paradigms to the ongoing construction of a feminist history of art, challenging normative discourses of social advancement, global capitalism and international migration, which often push women aside.

Selected Publications

Sheng, Vivian K. “Yin Xiuzhen’s Fluid Sites of Participation: A Communal Space of Communication and Antagonism.” Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 16, no. 5 (2017): 65-77.

Sheng, Vivian K. “Yin Xiuzhen’s fabric cavities: Fabricating ‘strange encounters.” Sculpture Journal 23, no. 3 (2014): 393-402.

Sheng, Vivian K. “‘Fabricating’ Social Conviviality: Yin Xiuzhen’s Transcultural (Dis) identification.” Paper presented at the 3rd Cultural Literacy in Europe Conference (CLE) Biennial Conference 2019: Cultural Literacy & Cosmopolitan Conviviality, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal, 9-11 May 2019.

Sheng, Vivian K. “Shen Yuan’s Speechless ‘Tongues’: Speaking out beyond language barriers.” Paper presented at the Association for Art History’s 44th Annual Conference, London, UK, 5-7 April 2018.

Sheng, Vivian K. “Yin Xiuzhen’s Fabrication of ‘Home’: A Legacy of Caring and Domestic Preservation.” Paper presented at the Art Association of Australia & New Zealand (AAANZ) Conference 2018: Aesthetics, Politics and Histories: The Social Context of Art, Melbourne, Australia, 5-7 December 2018.