Rain Wu (* 1987, Tainan) is a Taiwanese artist and architect based in London. Her work is conceptually driven and materialises in different forms and scales from drawing, sculpture, food performance to architectural installation.
She works with the temporality of perishable materials to instigate discussions around our manifold relationships with nature. Following the geographic, political, cosmological and microbial traces of living materials, her work investigates the interconnection between the consumption of food, digestion of cultures, charting of lands and recalling the myths.
She graduated from Royal College of Art and University College London. Her artwork has been exhibited in Sharjah Biennial (2017), Taipei Biennial (2016), The Palestinian Museum (2017), London Design Biennale (2016), Istanbul Design Biennial (2020), Hong-Gah Museum (2023), Manar Abu Dhabi (2023); she was in residence at the Design Museum London (2016), Fondation Thalie (2018), Jan van Eyck (2018-9) and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2024).
She is currently a lecturer at University of the Arts London and Goldsmiths University.
@rainwu_
info@rainwu.net
2024 Dec Lisbon Spice Rack / Gulbenkian CAM (PT) + Bauhaus of the Seas Sails pilot
Selected Talks & Presentations
2024 30 October: University of Limerick Architecture School artist talk: Counter Cartographies. Invited by Niamh Schmidtke.
2022 26 November: The Shape of the Circle in the Dream of the Fish curated by Lucia Pietroiusti/ Serpentine Galleries & Filipa Ramos/ Galeria Municipal do Porto.
2022 16 November: Food Cosmogonies: Expeditions 2022-23, online course run by The Gramounce (online)
2022 31 October: Climate Challenge: Creative Collaborations project launch lecture, organised by UAL CCW Design Schools x Design Museum London (UK)
2022 23-25 October: Abu Dhabi Cultural Summit (AE)
2022 2 October: Grottesco Torino (IT) In conversation with Federico Campagna, organised by Matt Didemus.
Selected Exhibitions
2024 Taking the Sorbet on a Walk / Gulbenkian Art Foundation (PT), commissioned by TBA21 (ES)
2024 Bat Night Market / Science Gallery London (UK) + Taipei Performing Arts Center (TW)
2024 Antidote ‘ Informality Gallery, Cromwell Place London (UK)
2023 One with the Soil, One with the Cloud/ Manar Abu Dhabi (UAE)
2023 As Above, So Below/Taiwan International Video Art exhibition, Hong-gah Museum, Taipei (TW)
2023 Installation design for Mori by Su Yu Hsin/ Paradoks Leipzig (DE)
2023 Simultaneous Melodies/ GroundWork Gallery, King’s Lynn (UK)
2022 As Above, So Below/ Porto Architecture Film Festival (PT)
2022 Installation design for Mori by Su Yu Hsin/ UCCA (CN)
2022 Festa Cipolla/ Villa Lena (IT)
2022 Mycelium Pavilion/ Cambridge Festival (UK)
2022 Hue/ Ecotone of Collective Lives (on Gather.town/ KR)
2021 From Nature group exhibition/ Informality Gallery (UK)
2020 As Above, So Below/ Istanbul Design Biennale (TR)
2020 The New Age Of Humanism/ Spazio Nobile Brussels (BE)
2019 The Sea Rises and Totally Still / Sea Views (FI)
2019 Facsimile Of A Breeze / Walk&Talk Azores (PT)
2019 Simultaneous Melodies/ Corridor Project Space Amsterdam (NL)
2019 We Move Silently Towards The Far Shore /Van Eyck (NL)
2018 From Strata of Memory to Layers of Rock /Fondation Thalie (BE)
2018 The Tea Set /Asia Now, Paris (FR)
2018 The Tea Set /Woodruff Arts Centre, Atlanta Design Festival (US)
2018 Bread /Van Eyck (NL)
2017 The Rock Nobody Could Lift /Keelung Ciao (TW)
2017 Threshold of Being /The Palestinian Museum (Palestine)
2017 Non-Human Narratives /Van Eyck (NL)
2017 Collectivism /Sharjah Biennial 13 (UAE)
2017 Incarnation, Taiwan Pavilion/Somerset House (UK)
2016 The Tea Set, Designers in Residence 2016/Design Museum (UK)
2016 Eatopia, Taiwan Pavilion /London Design Biennale (UK)
2016 Collectivism, Taipei Biennial /Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TW)
2015 Agloe /Gallerie Pierre (TW)
2015 Eataipei, Tent London /London Design Festival (UK)
2014 Plastica /Redbull Studios (UK)
2014 Canvas, Shao-Yen SS15 /Platform Theatre (UK)
2014 Ripples, Shao-Yen AW14 /Somerset House (UK)
2013 Fabrica de Sonhos /Lisbon Architecture Triennale (PT)
Awards
2024 Gulbenkian Foundation (PT) x Bauhaus of the Seas Sails
2023 a-n Artist Bursary (UK)
2021 Liverpool Biennial x a-n Artist Bursary (UK)
2018 Artist in Residence /Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL)
2016 Designer in Residence /Design Museum, London (UK)
2013 Third Prize:Taipei Fine Arts Museum X-Site 2014 (TW)
2011 Winner: Lisbon Architecture Triennale Universities Award (PT)
Selected Teaching
2017~ Associate Lecturer, UAL (UK)
2021~ Lecturer, BA Design Goldsmiths University, London (UK)
2021~2 Pathway Leader in Architecture, CSVPA, Cambridge (UK)
2020 Associate Lecturer, Canterbury School of Architecture, UCA (UK)
2019 Architecture tutor, Maastricht Master of Architecture ZUYD (NL)
2018 Architecture studio tutor, Bartlett Summer School (UK)
2017 Malaquais Intensifs, Paris (FR)
2015 Lecturer, National Cheng Kung University (TW)
2013,4,7 AcrossRCA, SustainRCA, Royal College of Art (UK)
Publications
2018 From Strata of Memory to Layers of Rock (ISBN 9789072076939)
2018 RARA: Speak (ISBN 9789072076915)
Qualifications
2015 RIBA Part III qualified British Architect
2011-13 Architecture MA, Royal College of Art
2006-9 Architecture BSc, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Architecture
2020 Practice Architecture (London, UK)
2011-15 Carmody Groarke Architects (London, UK)
2012 Sou Fujimoto Architects (Tokyo, Japan)
2010 Metropolitan Workshop (London, UK)
2009 Building Design Partnership (London, UK)
Selected Press and Interviews
2022 Inside Art 124
2022 Parole.cc
2021 Ocula Magazine ‘From Nature: The Materials Are the Message’
2020 TLmag 33 ‘To Appear and Disappear with Lightness’
2018 Artnet News- 10 of the Most Exciting Artists to Discover at FIAC and Its Satellite Fairs in Paris
2018 TLmag (Nearch Edition, Interview)
2016-18 MA! Design Is Human (The Tea Set, Eatopia, Eataipei)
2017 Design Magazine Taiwan (Interview)
2017 Perspective Magazine (Interview)
2016 Frame Magazine (Interview)