In Conversation | Unlicensed Tropes

What surplus meanings are created when images are presented in abundance? What else might be found in the backroom of a Chinatown restaurant? And what could one tell about the British-Asian immigrant experience through the design language of raw edges, deconstructed silhouettes, and subverted Eastern iconography?

In this salon-style conversation, participating artists Anthea Hamilton, Ruoru Mou and A Sai Ta join Billy Tang, curator of Unlicensed Goods, to discuss the operation of mimicry, appropriation and intervention within their practices as ways of challenging dominant cultural narratives and reconfiguring ideas of authorship, identity and belonging.

Part of the exhibition Unlicensed Goods' public programme, this event is preceded on the same day by a lecture performance by Mochu and Merve Ertufan. Please book separately via this to secure a spot.

About Unlicensed Goods

Unlicensed Goods is a major survey exhibition of Asian and Asian diasporic artists exploring the ad hoc networks and shadow economies that accompany the global movements of manufactured goods and migrant communities.

Unlicensed Goods engages with the friction, co-dependence and short circuits between formal and informal systems of production. Through the lens of immigrant experience and resilience, Unlicensed Goods traces overlooked histories and alternative concepts of authorship that continue to shape contemporary art.

Inspired by the proximities and overlaps between underground and mainstream circulations of manufactured objects and stories, Unlicensed Goods surveys practices and initiatives at the intersection of art, design and fashion. The exhibition marks the first major group survey since the opening of YDP. Occupying the entirety of the building with a combination of site-specific commissions, spatial interventions and existing works, the exhibition reflects on the material realities of globalised production. It examines questions of cultural access and exclusion, collaborative and collective forms of production that challenge singular authorship and modes of immigrant survival within environments that remain indifferent to—or actively erase—the visibility of outsiders.

Curated by Billy Tang, Artistic Director at YDP

About the artists

Anthea Hamilton (b. 1978, London) makes surreal, large-scale installations that the viewer can step into and wander around. She uses a variety of different materials and techniques combining performance, sculpture, painting, video and fashion design. Hamilton’s work is visually playful and thoughtful and her sculptures feature collage-like images which reuse images from her previous work.

She was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2016. Large-scale solo exhibitions have included The Squash at Tate Britain, Anthea Hamilton Reimagines Kettle’s Yard at The Hepworth Wakefield, and Lichen! Libido! Chastity at the SculptureCenter in New York.

Ruoru Mou (b. 1997, Florence) is an artist based in London and Amsterdam. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, Mou’s process-led practice reconfigures organic material, industrial forms and by-products alongside cinematic tropes to question how we assign value and navigate excess. Her works often transform over time, reflecting the contingent systems that shape production, circulation, and material politics.

Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Fortunate’, Cell Projects Space, London (2025); ‘Leftover Linings’, San Mei Gallery, London (2024). Mou recently completed a two-year residency at De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2024–25).

Recent group exhibitions include ‘Life After Life’, 15th Kaunas Biennial, Kaunas (2025); ‘OFFSPRING 2025’, De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2025); ‘Big Fortune’, Woonhuis De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2024); ‘Ceremonial Weight’, April in Paris, Aerdenhout (2024); ‘On Feeling’, The Approach, London (2024); and ‘Cozzie Livs’, Des Bains, London (2023).

A Sai Ta is a London-based British-Vietnamese-Chinese fashion designer and the creative force behind the cult label ASAI.

A graduate of Central Saint Martins, Ta honed his craft at luxury houses including The Row and Kanye West’s YEEZY before launching his eponymous brand in 2017 with the backing of talent incubator Fashion East. He is globally celebrated for creating the iconic ‘Hot Wok’ top—a form-fitting, patchwork mesh separate featuring vibrant, nuclear-hued tie-dyes and heavily overlocked, exposed seams. His design philosophy embraces an ‘anti-perfectionist’ aesthetic that deliberately rejects traditional Western luxury finishes. Instead, Ta uses raw edges, deconstructed silhouettes, and subverted Eastern iconography to critique race, class, and the British-Asian immigrant experience.

A recipient of the British Fashion Council’s NEWGEN scheme, Ta’s avant-garde vision has earned partnerships with Rihanna’s FENTY and a loyal following among global style icons.