Friday Late: Rituals of Becoming

Moving between the sacred, the everyday, and digital spaces, the works invite you to explore shared rituals— new ways of grounding, connecting, and shaping the world in flux. 
Featuring dynamic performances, interactive installations and films, the Friday Late is a response to the Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific exhibition. 

All events are free, and places are designated on a first-come, first-served basis unless stated otherwise. Filming and photography will take place at this event. If you have any access requirements, please let us know in advance by emailing accessibility@vam.ac.uk 

Please note if the V&A or any of the activations reaches capacity, we will allow access on a one-in, one-out basis.

A 

DJ Set by object blue
The Grand Entrance, Cromwell Road 

Immerse in object blue’s world blending electronic sound, experimental spirit with raw dancefloor energy. Mixing cathartic and body-moving sounds, she often brings global perspectives to her music. She was commended by Mixmag as one of the producers who defined 2025. Co-presented with Diasporas Now. 

@object.blue 

@diasporas_now 

B 

Communion 

The Raphael Cartoons, Room 48a 

Performances at 19:40, 20:50 

Duration: 30 minutes 

Please note the sculptures are on view throughout the Late. 

Experience transformation and collective myth-making through movement, sound and sculptures. Navigating a portal from shared longing to reverie, this fluid ritual gathers audiences into liminal spaces where meaning is felt, not fixed. A special edition conceived by artist Woo Jin Joo for the V&A, the performance was inspired by Korean shamanistic rituals and first staged at ai.gallery.  

@woojinstudio  

@beibeiwangpercussion  

@kehua_lico  

@tangramsound 

@_ai_gallery

C 

Ladhamba Tayem; Future Continuous ᤗᤠᤎᤠᤶᤒᤠ  ᤋᤠᤕᤧᤶ 

Hochhauser Auditorium 

Level 1, Learning Centre 

Film on loop from 18:30 – 19:45 

Duration: About 14 minutes 

Connecting an 18th century Yakthung warrior and a Yakthung time-traveller from a distant future, the film is a reminder of the fight against colonialism and a future we want to strive for. Converging the two timelines, the work invites us to consider our own roles in the passage of time. Yakthung is also known as Limbu, an indigenous group in Eastern Nepal. 

@limbusubashthebe

D 

Panel Discussion: Spirituality in Contemporary Performances  

Hochhauser Auditorium 

Level 1, Learning Centre 

20:00 

Duration: 45 minutes  

Hear from dancer Ching-Ying Chien and artist Devika Bilimoria on how spiritual practices and diasporic narratives inspire movement. Chien has performed for Akram Khan Company and choreographed Vulture. Through performance, ritual and games, Bilimoria looks at diasporic experiences marked by migration and colonial rupture. 

Moderated by Studio Voltaire curator Dot Zhihan Jia.  

@ching_ying_chien 

@devika_bilimoria 

@dotjia

E 

Sandcastle 
The John Madejski Garden  

Performances 18:30, 19:50 

Duration: 20 minutes  

Explore issues of land ownership and urbanisation through Jolene, played by artist Hongxi Li. Mimicking childlike sandcastle play, Jolene enters a ton of locally sourced soil, repeatedly moulding towers—responding to each site while revealing tensions around control, boundaries, and shifting relationships to land. The artist explores how social systems shape behaviour, emotion, and the body.   

Co-presented with Diasporas Now. 

@sassyli 

@diasporas_now 

F
 
Naqqāli  - نقالی 
The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre 

30-minute performance at 19:15 in the theatre, followed by a 7-minute ritual in the John Madejski Garden at 20:30 

Please be aware that the performance may include nudity. Access to the garden ritual to be directed by the artist.  

Responding to the Ardabil Carpet in The Jameel Gallery, Mahsa Salali reactivates the mythology of the Shahnameh through their body within the institution once shaped by British imperialism, foregrounding shifting construction of Persian identities across times. The ritual in the garden asks questions about exclusivity and the denial of access across social structures. 

 Co-presented with Diasporas Now. 

@mahsasalali 

@diasporas_now 

G 

I give you a mountain and Let’s party like it’s 1815 

The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Level 2 

Films on loop from 20:15 – 21:15 

Duration: About 15 minutes  

Explore artist Joan Ross’ films, a journey into Australia’s colonial past, fluorescent high vis colours and digital layering. A revelation of violence, entitlement and absurdity embedded in colonial histories. Ross repurposes historic paintings, ethnographic imagery and colonial records, re-animating them to critique ongoing impacts of dispossession, environmental damage and exploitation.  

@wecallthisatree 

H 

Badak  

Tapestries, Room 94, Level 2  

Film on loop from 18:30 – 21:15 

Duration: About 31 minutes  

Riar Rizaldi’s film follows an Indonesian tin miner who descends a mountain shaft in rural Java, transformed into a human-rhinoceros hybrid and reappears on a beach in Phuket, Thailand as a tourist. Encountering a local deity, the dialogue probes the nature of extraction. With rhinos endangered and minerals deleted, mining sites have become tourist destinations, echoing the transformation of Phuket. The film asks: What is unearthed, and what is lost? 

@riarrr 

I  

Memory on a Plate  

Prince Consort Gallery, Room 110 

Drop-in from 18:30 – 21:30 

Collage food rituals through cultural exploration and memory. Immersed under a vibrant, projected dinner table, dive into themes of family traditions, childhood nostalgia and comfort food to connect over shared eating rituals. Led by Adobe Creative Resident Maria Than, Safiya Ahmed and Bristy Azmi from Ricebox Studio.  

The Adobe Creative Residency is supported by the Adobe Foundation.   

@riceboxstudio 

@blurbnation

J 

Weaving Voices 

Photography Centre, Room 97, 

 The Parasol Foundation Gallery 

Drop in from 18:30 – 21:20 

20-minute poetry performance at 18:30 and 21:00 

Join us for an intimate workshop where collective weaving and poetry come together. Sit down for a collective weaving workshop accompanied by two performances, featuring poets connected to Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Australia. Produced by the V&A Youth Collective. 

 K 

Ritual Creation Book Making Workshop 

National Art Library 

18:45, 19:30, 20:15  

Duration: 30 minutes 

Please note these workshops have limited capacity. Sign up from 18:30 - 19:30 at the National Art Library landing.  

Rituals are tools for transformation, opening up ways of challenging old patterns, and manifesting new ideas. Drawing on works by contemporary artists from Asia, Australia and the Pacific, this workshop invites you to explore the idea of rituals through the deconstruction and re-creation of books. Led by V&A librarians.  

L 

PAGASA (Hope) 

Medieval & Renaissance, Room 64b 

The Simon Sainsbury Gallery 

Performative lecture at 19:00, 20:30 

Duration: 30 minutes  

PAGASA takes us through sky, sea and land, tracing how Filipino animist cosmologies have been absorbed into satellites, storm-tracking systems and submarine cables. Featuring ambient music and real-time graphics, artist and technologist Chia Amisola’s performative lecture unpacks connections between spiritual beliefs and technological myths, revealing how the exploitation of Filipino labour continues through AI expansion. 

@hotemogf