Beyond the Archive:
Developing an interdisciplinary practice from the Family Archive
Research and Development Summary:
This funding supports a year developing my practice from painting into interdisciplinary work on family and cultural memory, built around the Tang Family Archive — over 7,000 photographs, letters and documents I began gathering after my mother's death, tracing one Hong Kong family across generations of migration. I will develop four new capacities: ceramics, oral history (recording my aunt while I still can), visual research into the Shan Hai Jing and Hong Kong urban legends, and interactive digital storytelling. The work is urgent — Hong Kong's heritage is disappearing, and my own hearing is fading.
Year of the Horse: May We Find Our Way in Grief and Chaos (2026)
Watercolour on folded paper.
The first non-memorial painting I created after my mother’s death, painted for the Lunar/Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse
The nostalgic Pokémon Ponyta-inspired horse tramples through each of my tarot card iconographies, lighting the sky ablaze while surrounded by the flowers I get for my mum & her altar each week. The piece can be folded to fit into my bag, acting as a spiritual map for me in 2026, so I can carry the chaotic but determined spirit of the Fire Horse with me everywhere I go.
Tang Family Archive
(2025 - ongoing)
Over 7000 items physically, and over 1000 items catalogued and digitised.
Made in loving memory of my mum Pauline Tang, and my grandparents Fok Shuk Ching & Tang Man To. Archived from the perspective of Charlotte Mui, with my aunt (EE) Julianna Tang as the primary source of stories, footnotes, and history.
Two weeks after my mother’s death, I began building the Tang Family Archive. It includes photographs from the 1950s, letters, documents and VHS tapes tracing a Hong Kong family: my grandparents' bra shop in a Mong Kok alley, the letters my mother and aunt wrote each other, the rise and bankruptcy of the family factory. My grandparents migrated from Shuntak during the war, and two generations later, I have also left Hong Kong. Ours is a history of constant migration and it is micro-histories like these that make up a culture.
Have A Rice Day (2022)
A series of 24 mixed media works
Have A Rice Day was my first solo exhibition with Alisan Fine Arts at Alisan Aberdeen, and my first commercial gallery solo exhibition.
The exhibition showed my series of paintings that were inspired by my mother, my aunt, and my grandmother’s home-cooked dishes such as steamed Panther Grouper, vegetable soup, and coconut milk pudding. Using vibrant colours and personified food subjects on circular paper and canvases, these served as an alternative to ‘still life’ paintings, while simultaneously recording a facet of my family & cultural history.
The title “Have a Rice Day” is derived from the local Chinese saying “Three dishes one soup and rice for free” (三餸一湯白飯任裝), resonates with the whimsical style of my work. This exhibition was part of Hong Kong Art Gallery Association’s Summer Programme, which aimed to promote young Hong Kong talent.
Gwai Lenormand (2022)
The Gwai Lenormand is a vibrant, ghostly divination deck created by Charlotte Mui as a sister project to L’Œil de L’Âme Tarot.
Comprised of 36 digitally illustrated cards, the deck was designed to offer a more straightforward and grounded perspective while maintaining a playful, "whimsical-dark" spirit.
The word 'Gwai' is the romanisation or Chinglish of the Cantonese word '鬼 ghost' yet also bears similar pronunciation (or at least similar Chinglish) as '怪 monster' and '乖 well-behaved'. The first two Cantonese words suggest the whimsically mystical world the deck inhabits, while the last one is a hope that this deck is less grumpy than my tarot deck.
The deck is currently held in the collections of the College of Psychic Studies and in the process of being acquired by other organisations.
A series of 36 digitally illustrated cards, produced as a limited set of 9cm x 9cm divination cards.
L’Œil de L’Âme Tarot (2019 - 2021)
A series of 86 watercolour paintings, produced as a limited set of 7cm x 21 cm cards
Conceived by Charlotte Mui, L’Œil de L’Âme Tarot is a contemporary reimagining of the tarot that emphasises the fluidity of watercolour and the depth of the subconscious. Developed over two years, the deck features 86 cards that weave together art history, theatre, dreamscapes, and the artist's own experiences.
Accompanying the deck is a hand-bound zine that serves as a foundational guide on how to use the deck for divination.
Following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2021 that raised approximately £12,200, the deck has since gained international recognition, with copies now held in collections such as the Tate Library and the College of Psychic Studies in London and the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong.
Global Resiliencies (2024)
Project at Stuart Hall Library, iniva involving an evolving showcase, an open call, and a publication in collaboration with RCA Palestine.
Global Resiliencies is a project centred on activist zines produced between 2010 and 2022. It asks how grassroots publications can reflect and shape political movements and collective action across different geopolitical contexts around the globe. At its core, this project seeks to explore how zines—those self-published, often ephemeral documents of resistance—offer unique insights into how people resist, build communities, and foster solidarity across borders.
From 2 October 2024, to 28 February 2025, Global Resiliencies unfolded at the Stuart Hall Library as a living, evolving showcase rather than a conventional, static exhibition. This approach emphasises a continuous process of gathering, sharing, and reflecting on activist voices and materials. The project’s format is open and participatory, designed to create new connections between distant geographies and varied political struggles.
