A piece of glass was placed over a lamp and the artist tries to “wash the light” by adding soap, water and gel to the glass. The light was distorted.

Phoebe Man is a multimedia artist, independent curator, and Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Working across animation, video, installation, performance and participatory practice, she specialises in socially engaged art and community-based projects that foreground identity, dialogue and collective memory.

Her recent project series The Taste of Longing (2023–2026) explores food, memory, and identity. Using animation as a catalyst for collective remembrance, Man created Eight Tastes of Longing, which has screened at 4 festivals and exhibitions internationally, including the Nevada Women’s Film Festival (USA). A participatory installation version of the project has been presented in Taiwan, Japan, and Macau.

Man’s animation Post #MeToo (2022), developed as part of a socially engaged art project, received an Honorable Mention from the FOLCS International Short Film Competition in New York. The work has been shown at 20 international museums and film festivals. In 2020, she curated the group exhibition Post #MeToo Art, addressing sexual assault and related social issues.

Her practice always has audience engagement. Her participatory installation Erosion of Home (2015), addressing housing issues, was invited to exhibitions curated by the Hong Kong Museum of Art and presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei; over a two-month period, more than 6,000 visitors took part in its creation. Her edible sculptures and performance series Birthday Cakes (2014–15) were selected for a show organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, and were also invited to the Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA), Seattle. Since 2014, she has led 23 workshops titled If I Were, focusing on sexual violence in Taiwan and Hong Kong, with over 500 participants. In collaboration with the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, she developed further public projects including One Person One Heart (2014) and Free Coloring If I Were (2018-2025). One Person One Heart is now a permanent exhibit at the Ama Museum—Museum of Peace and Women’s Human Rights in Taipei, with over 3,000 participants contributing to the work.

She curates local and overseas community art projects, including “Resonance Islands” in the Orkney Islands in UK and “Project C” for Fotan art community. Her research on community art has been published and presented internationally. Her paper “Creative Strategies for Hong Kong Community Art in Community Building” appeared in Hong Kong Visual Arts Overview 2020 (Chinese University Press, 2022). She has also presented research in the Hong Kong Visual Arts Yearbook (2017, 2020) and at conferences hosted by Seijo University (Tokyo), the National University of Ireland Galway, and Leiden University.

As a curator, Man is one of the founders of Para/Site Art Space and formerly served as Director of the Asian Experimental Video Festival (Hong Kong). She has curated screening programmes and exhibitions internationally, including projects for Over View (world tour, 2014–15), the Asian Experimental Video Festival in Macao (2011, 2015, 2017), EX!T 2010: Experimental Media Festival (Taiwan), and EXiS: Experimental Film/Video Festival (Seoul, 2009), as well as exhibitions such as Making the Familiar Unfamiliar @ Hong Kong Park (2009), Playground (Kao Yuan University, Taiwan, 2006), and Wo Man: Feminine Art Exhibition (Macau, 2001). Her writing has appeared in ArtAsiaPacific (2016) and other art and film publications.

Man’s artworks have been presented in more than 200 exhibitions and festivals worldwide, including Anthology Film Archives (2019), LOOP Barcelona (2017, 2019), Times Art Center Berlin (2018), Pori Art Museum, Finland (2016), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (2015), Cutlog New York (2014), the Shanghai Biennale (2004), the Venice Biennale (2003), the Gwangju Biennale (2002), and the European Media Art Festival (2001). Her book titled Phoebe Man’s Socially Engaged Art, was published in 2017, reviewing nine key works.

In 2017, Man was selected as one of four international artists for the Wapping Project Berlin Residency. She has received project grants from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and awards/scholarships from organisations including the Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Competition, the Asian Cultural Council, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and the Philippe Charriol Foundation. Marie Claire named her one of the ten “Smart Women of the 21st Century.” Her work My Mirror was featured in The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies (2020), and her works have been discussed in publications including Asian Art (Pearson, 2014), The Art of Modern China (University of California Press, 2012), and Hong Kong Eye: Hong Kong Contemporary Art (2012).

Man holds a BA from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (1991), an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (2000), and a DFA from RMIT University (2012). She has also served in advisory and accreditation capacities, including as a Specialist for the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications, and was an Advisor/Examiner for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.