In Conversation with the Founder of Synonym Labs

After viewing Synonym Lab’s exhibition in Shoreditch last weekend, the opportunity arose to sit down with its co-founder Ke Bao. Synonym Lab is an event curation company that brings a unique social aspect to the traditional gallery experience. It has a commitment to showcasing local artists and their work, placing the onus on the craft, rather than the finished piece, and encouraging a working understanding of what it means to create. The company has curated a variety of events and workshops, all of which seek to provide a neoteric twist on the typical art gallery experience. His most recent exhibition, Object Oriented Ontology, focuses on everyday objects and to delve beyond their functional purpose–accentuating an aesthetic and referential value. In this interview, Boa explores his unique business membership model, how it relates to the creative space, and his upcoming events, such as the London Design Festival. So how did Synonym Labs start?

I co-founded of both YDMD Studios and Synonym Lab. From 2021 to 2023 I was working as a producer, curator, and artist after finishing my foundation course at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in China. I then began curating exhibitions, as well as working with other artists on our own projects. Two years later, I founded Synonym Lab with its core mission being to build a new system that expedites the time it takes for artists' work to become profitable. I sculpted the company after the AirBnB model, using gallery spaces and curator connections we already had to give artists a veritable leg up when beginning their career. This method allowed us to not only sell the artists pieces, but also their experience in the form of workshops. These workshops last around two to three hours, in which the customer can come to the studio, talk to the artist and gain an understanding of their processes. I developed an algorithm to match customers with a new artist every week, as I was always in charge of the business side of the operations at my previous studio.

So Synonym Lab is more experience-based then gallery based?

Yes, because of our algorithm there is more of an emphasis on the process and the experience.

This specific gallery we are in at the moment is focused on Object Oriented Ontology (OOO), could you give me a brief description of what that is?

OOO is a theory I was studying whilst I was at Goldsmiths university. I like to think about functional everyday objects, and the narratives that surround them. The exhibitions emphasise the objects themselves rather than how we perceive them. Inevitably, we have two ways in which we can view an object. Taking a table as an example, the first would be to describe the table materialistically, the things it's made of, or its general shape. The second way would be your functional relation to the object, (i.e. what you can do with it). But there is always a middle ground that is ineffable, so when Synonym Lab curated this exhibition, we wanted to place an emphasis on letting the objects speak for themselves.

You had very craft-based artists participate in this exhibit such as Lili Bargłowska who exhibited her work. Could you delve more into the criteria that you use to select artists for an event?

For this exhibition, AlsoLike was a perfect gallery space to accentuate the strengths of OOO, as it has a lot of shelves and tables. When it comes to the actual artists, I rejected anything that was only a painting. One of the pieces by Roman Vaughan-Williams, who graduated from the Royal Drawing School, made both his own painting and its frame. He uses magnets to keep the main image in the foreground, assembling and hand texturing the frame that goes around it. He used drawing as a visual language to fake the painting system, and this unique transformation is what led to me asking him to participate.

Are you running any similar events at the moment?

Currently we are running another one with SET, a charity in London that we’re renting a studio from. That exhibition is called Anticipation and will take place at SET Ealing. We’ve invited other artists to participate, one of whom used to do performances in the Tate Modern. The workshop is focused on using different ways to feel your body, and to let people think about something they haven’t before.

You mentioned earlier that you had your start in China, how has it been working in London? Have you found it more of a struggle or are there parts that are easier?

There are positives and negatives. When it comes down to it, London is much more expensive. I can’t rent big spaces for extended periods of time. There has also been a language barrier yet it hasn’t stopped me from meeting and collaborating with different people. I think there is a balance that is created through opportunities like that. I was asked in China if I was “creating Chinese crafts,” to which I would say no, as I don’t want my nationality to mark my art. London has also given me the flexibility to pursue new opportunities such as partnering with the London Design Festival in September. I have been thinking about using the iconic red phone boxes and letting artists use them to display their work, just to experiment with the different possibilities that come with the space.

Finally, do you think running more of an event-focused curation company brings a unique social aspect to the arts scene?

Definitely. One of the core elements I want to keep for Synonym Lab is a focus on people, social connection and community through this unique system I’ve tried to build. I know for OOO, it’s about letting the object speak, but the whole mission for Synonym Lab is to let the people speak… let the artist speak. To keep up to date with Synonym Labs, follow them on Instagram

Edited by Daria Slikker, London Editor