SYMPOSIUM: Asian-Australian Art Now: Positioning the Field[s]

27, 28 September 2008

Organized by the Australian Centre for Asian Art & Archaeology, University of Sydney and Gallery 4 A. Sydney with the financial support of the ARC Asia-Pacific Futures Research Network, the School of Letters, Art and Media of the University of Sydney, and Gallery 4A. This workshop will provide a forum for statement and debates by artists, art theorists, art administrators and curators on what constitutes Asian-Australian art. We will debate whether this kind of hyphenated naming and categorization has value, and if so of what kind? Should cultural identification, in current conditions of national and global art, be deferred as simply a situation of reference of art practice, whether of the artist or the theorizing and exhibiting agencies? There is an increasing body of work by Australian artists whose starting point is their own family links to different Asian cultures, and there are artists without such a background who increasingly work directly in Asian countries or with Asian references. These positions have resulted in a complex web of Asian and Australian encounters.

Speakers include: Ah Xian, Gennady Liu, Yuji Sone, Suzann Victor, John Young, Charles Green and Lyndell Brown, Cuong Le, Francis Maravillas, Djon Mundine, Nicholas Tsoutas, Vernon Ah-Kee, Prapon Kumjim, Rodney Glick, Lindy Lee, Jamil Yamani, Alison Carroll, Christine Clark, Rachel Kent, and Kim Machan.