Talks

Explore our 4A Talks library of panel talks, in-conversations, reading, lectures, transcripts, and more. This growing archive spotlights artists, writers, curators, cultural workers, arts leaders, and researchers, as well as other visionaries featured in the wider 4A program. Keen to access more talks? Visit our archives website.
4A Digital In Review
Recorded 18 November 2021
4A Papers Issue 10: Letter from the Editor
Mariam Arcilla reads her Letter from the Editor to introduce 4A Papers: Issue 10. Featuring contributions from Matt Chun, Green Papaya Art Projects, Leora Joy Jones, Annette An-Jen Liu, and Hugh Hudson / Taipei National University of the Arts 國立台北藝術大學. Access Issue 10 here,
Recorded 04 October 2021
Survival Aesthetics
Recorded 09 September 2021
Kien Situ and John Choi
Kien Situ in conversation with John Choi
Recorded 26 July 2021
Off The Page: Design, illustration and authorship in contemporary comics
Panel discussion with Jin Hien Lau, Meg O’Shea and W. Chew Chan, moderated by Con Gerakaris. Held as part of Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not A Virus, Part 2.
Recorded 08 July 2021
Let’s unpack Acute Acts: 4A Panel x Performance
Panel discussion at Firstdraft with Andrea Srisurapon, Jayanto Tan, and curator Reina Takeuchi, followed by a performance by Amy Zhang X MaggZ. Held as part of Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not a Virus, Part 1.
Recorded 15 May 2021
Sophia Cai: Art, craft, collective solidarity and fandom culture
Sophia Cai in conversation with Mariam Arcilla. Held as part of Acute Actions: Responses to I Am Not a Virus, Part 1.
Recorded 13 May 2021
Artist talk with James Jirat Patradoon
James Jirat Patradoon in conversation with Con Gerakaris
Recorded 13 February 2021
Sofiyah Ruqayah
Sofiyah Ruqayah in conversation with Reina Takeuchi
Recorded 24 October 2020
Mel Stringer
Mel Stringer in conversation with Reina Takeuchi
Recorded 15 October 2020
Shireen Taweel
Shireen Taweel in conversation with Reina Takeuchi
Recorded 05 September 2020
Crossing Threads®
Crossing Threads® in conversation with Con Gerakaris
Recorded 16 August 2020
Please Explain: No one's drowning, baby
Artist Paula Schaafhausen, Guardian Australia Pacific Editor Kate Lyons and Professor John Church, pre-eminent expert in sea level rise, speak to this issue in this major Sydney Festival panel event moderated by Wesley Enoch. This talk was hosted as part of Wansolwara: One Salt Water.
Recorded 19 January 2020
Please Explain: Who is picking the fruit?
As part of exhibition John Vea: If I pick your fruit, will you put mine back? speakers discuss the realities and unrepresented stories in contemporary globalised era migrant labour, which emerged as a key indicator of regional socio-economic relationships between Australia, New Zealand and many Pacific nations.
Framed by Vea’s 2015 text The Emic Avenue; art through Talanoa and the concept of talanoa (a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue) as research method, speakers Christine Afoa, Malaemie Fruean, Leo Tanoi and John Vea, with moderator Micheal Do, will discuss the stories, experiences and representations of Pacific migrant workers and the role art and storytelling can play in reframing and challenging the ideas of equality and validity of a global workforce.
Recorded 19 October 2019
Please Explain: Do colonial objects still hold power
As part of exhibition Nusra Latif Qureshi: Strategies of Intent, speakers discuss the mobility of meaning and challenges presented by historical objects and imagery in a post-Orientalist world. Taking the work of artist Nusra Latif Qureshi and the text Networked Objects (2013) by Mary Roberts as a starting point, this discussion will ask whether colonial objects still hold potency today in institutions and artistic practice; and investigate how artists and curators can work to challenge and engage with constructed histories of objects in shifting contexts.
Recorded 24 August 2019
Please Explain: Are We Our Gadgets?
Responding to The Invisible Hand, an exhibition that considers how digital platform technologies are exploiting technological convenience to co-opt personal data in an uncertain zero-sum game, this edition of Please Explain was moderated by Ariel Bogle, Technology Reporter for The ABC, and included panelists David Vaile, stream leader for the Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Faculty of Law, and Prof. Bronwen Morgan, Professor, School of Law, University of New South Wales (UNSW), alongside The Invisible Hand exhibiting artists Sunwoo Hoon and Mijoon Pak (Korea).
Recorded 29 June 2019
Top image: Lee Kun -Yong , The Method of Drawing 76 - 2, first performed in 1976, (re -performed in 2018); photo: Document Photography