VH Award | Eyebeam

Asia’s leading award for new media artists

Eyebeam, in collaboration with Hyundai Motor Group, builds from the successful model of our core fellowship program to annually support the five finalists of the VH Award. Established in 2016, VH AWARD discovers and supports emerging and new media artists by sharing their artistic experiments and showcasing their artworks across global platforms.

The program supports Asian media artists in their artistic experiments and provides opportunities for residency programs, showcasing their works across various global platforms.

All participating artists attend professional development sessions, while private workshops led by field leaders in technology and the arts build an understanding of potential new digital coding skills and greater engagement with the global field as a whole. Artists benefit from studio visits and additional international opportunities.

5th VH Award (2022)2022-award

Grand Prix recipient Subash Thebe Limbu won the award with his work titled “Ladhmaba Tayen; Future Continuous.” In his work, Limbu imagines futures where Indigenous people’s actions and existence is in the space-time continuum.

“This work plays with the idea of time as not something rigid but ductile or weavable, which in turn paves the way for questions like how we might want to weave the future.”

An indigenous Yakthung person with long hair, silver earrings, traditional white scarf with blue and pink star patterns.

Subash Thebe Limbu Democracy Machine Fellow
VH Award Resident

Subash Thebe Limbu, Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous, Single channel video, 14’51”, 2023, Commissioned by VH AWARD of Hyundai Motor Group

5th VH Award Finalists

Black and White photo of artist Zike He, a Chinese woman with straight, long dark hair wearing a V-neck sleeveless top, looks off into the distance, facing her left. In the background is an overhead power line on a hill.

Zike He VH Award Resident

Black and White photo of artist and filmmaker, Riar Rizaldi. He wears glasses and a baseball cap and is looking down.

Riar Rizaldi VH Award Resident

Pictured is artist, Su Hui-Yu, a young-looking mid-40's Taiwanese man with short straight hair parted near the middle.

Su Hui-Yu VH Award Resident

Black and white photo of artists, Yang Wang (left) and Zhenzhen Qi (right). They are both seated in their studio in front of a white brick wall.

ZZYW (With Yang Wang and Zhenzhen Qi) VH Award Resident

5th VH Award Jury

The grand prix winner of the 5th VH AWARD was selected by a team of renowned curators and directors: Sook-kyung Lee, Senior Curator, International Art at Tate Modern; Christopher Phillips, independent curator and critic; Aaron Seeto, Director of Museum MACAN; Dr. June Yap, Director, Curatorial, Collections and Programmes of Singapore Art Museum; and Roderick Schrock, Curator and Executive Director of Eyebeam.

5th VH Award Mentors

Finalists participated in an online residency program hosted by Eyebeam holding professional development sessions and regular mentorship meetings with globally renowned art experts that include: Barbara London and Magdalena Magiera, as well as artists Jon Ippolito, Clarinda Mac Low, Kamau Amu Patton, Taeyoon Choi, and Marton Robinson.

4th VH Award (2021)2021-award

Working with video game software and CGI animation, London-based artist Lawrence Lek merges real places with virtual worlds to look at how humans interact with AI and how digital images alter our experiences in the real world. He explores worldbuilding, the creative approach of crafting entire fictional worlds, as a form of collage, incorporating elements from the materials and virtual worlds to develop narratives of alternate histories and possible futures. Lek’s Grand Prix-winning work, Black Cloud (2021) revolves around a conversation between an urban AI system designed to surveil a city that has been abandoned and their built-in therapist, seemingly the product of their own mind. By setting the dialogue within the ruins of the fictional smart city of SimBeijing, the video continues Lek’s exploration of the psychological impact of technological landscapes.

“I made Black Cloud during an Eyebeam residency in the run-up to the 4th VH Award in 2021. Set in an abandoned smart city of the near future, the short film revolves around a surveillance AI’s conversations with their built-in self-help bot. Like previous works, it explores themes of identity and social change in an age of AI, set to a soundtrack that I made over with my friend Kode9.”

Lawrence Lek

Lawrence Lek, Black Cloud, Single channel video, 10’50”, 2021, Commissioned by VH AWARD of Hyundai Motor Group

4th VH Award Finalists

Pictured is Doreen Chan, who sits on a wooden floor, and holds a small craggy rock-shaped sculpture in her left hand. She has warm auburn, brown hair that swoops down below her shoulders. She is seated by a work table, in front of two windows looking out to a park.

Doreen Chan VH Award Resident

Pictured is Parabartana Mohanty, a lighter skin Indian man, with buzzed hair, and a trimmed mustache and beard. He wears a white t-shirt with a print of one of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe Diptychs. He is smiling with teeth baring, and standing in front a wall of green leaves.

Paribartana Mohanty

Jungwong Seo

Pictured is artist Syaura, a brown-skinned Indonesia Woman, with dark brown hair wearing blunt bangs and wavy bobbed hair that is mid-neck length. She wears burgundy color lipstick and a pin-striped jacket over a black top.

Syaura Qotrunadha

4th VH Award Jury

4th VH Award Mentors

Finalists participated in an online residency program hosted by Eyebeam holding professional development sessions and regular mentorship meetings with globally renowned art experts that include: Barbara London, Kamau Amu Patton, Ute Meta Bauer, Karen Archey, Zach Lieberman, and American Artist.