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This November marks the 20th Anniversary of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Over these two decades 4A has carved a place for Asian-Australian artistic voices and celebrated Australia’s dynamic and diverse engagement with Asia.
4A offers two programs, designed to support emerging arts professionals in their respective fields by providing them with opportunities to connect and interact with practicing professionals in both Australia and Asia – the 2016 Beijing Studio Program and the 2016 4A Curators’ Intensive.
These programs further reaffirm 4A’s distinctive approach to addressing Australia’s cultural diversity through a dynamic program including local and international exhibitions, public programs, workshops, seminars, symposiums and community activities.
Beijing Studio Program
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah (WA), Eugenia Lim (VIC), and Justin Shoulder (NSW) have been selected to embark on a month-long residency at the studios of renowned Chinese-Australian artist Shen Shaomin.
Now in its fifth year the Beijing Studio Program provides early and mid career Australian artists with a valuable opportunity to research new projects in rich cultural surroundings, build professional networks and observe the changes taking place in one of the most important cities in Asia.
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Eugenia Lim and Justin Shoulder were selected by a committee comprising Sue Acret, 4A Board Member and Co-Founder, ArtAsia Advisory; Professor Colin Rhodes, Dean, Sydney College of the Arts, and Toby Chapman, Creative Producer, Information & Cultural Exchange.
Abdullah, Lim and Shoulder were selected based on the strength of their applications, the potential benefits for their practices and capacity to extend their own cross-cultural networks.
Sue Acret said of Abdul-Rahman Abdullah: “The 4A Beijing Studio Residency Program offers Abdul-Rahman Abdullah the opportunity to explore a new mode of family and artistic life in the studio of Shen Shaomin. Although Abdullah’s artistic preoccupations are born out of the cultural and familial roots of his Malay-Australian Muslim heritage, they are universal in their commentary on the dialogue between the animal/natural world and the cultural/human one. The residency also presents a great opportunity for Abdullah to investigate new modes of art making and possibilities for collaboration.”
Professor Rhodes said of Eugenia Lim: “Eugenia Lim has seized the moment and brought her practice front and centre. She has conceived a project that will make the most of a residency in Shen Shaomin’s studio and which, I suspect, will be impactful in China as well as here in Australia. Lim’s art is wise and arresting; two qualities that will only grow further out of this opportunity.”
Toby Chapman said of Justin Shoulder: “Justin Shoulder’s application was outstanding and illustrated clear benefits of time spent at the studios of Shen Shaomin. His current area of research and previous projects illustrate interesting alignments and intersections with contemporary practices in China as well as traditional forms of knowledge sharing and storytelling.”
Abdullah, Lim and Shoulder will travel to China in September 2016.
4A Curators’ Intensive
4A presents the third iteration of the 4A Curators’ Intensive, supported by Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
This biannual initiative is a week-long intensive program facilitated by leading international curators, Carol Yinghua Lu (Beijing, China) Zarmeené Shah (Karachi, Pakistan) and Pooja Sood (Delhi, India). Along with 4A Director Mikala Tai and Casula Powerhouse Art Centre’s Creative Producer Community Cultural Engagement Khaled Sabsabi. These international curators will host a week of workshops, artists’ studio visits and discussions that seek to encourage the next generation of Australian curators to create sustainable working methodologies that extend between Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
4A’s Director Mikala Tai says: “This program is a significant investment in the professional development of our future curatorial talent. The opportunity for them to work with leading curators from the Asia-Pacific throughout a demanding and rigorous week is unrivalled. We hope that at the end of the intensive that the manner in which they approach the act of exhibition making will have been extended and expanded.”
From a highly competitive pool of applicants from New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia, the following 11 curators will participate in the 2016 4A Curators’ Intensive: Hanann Al Daqqa (Vic), Joanna Bayndrian (NSW), Micheal Do (NSW), Alana Hunt (WA), Anabelle Lacroix (Vic), Luke Letourneau (NSW), Melissa McGrath (SA), Laura McLean (NSW), Adam Porter (NSW), Talia Smith (NSW) and Amelia Wallin (NSW).
In addition to the closed program of 4A Curators’ Intensive designed for the participants, the three international curators will present keynotes at 4A. Open to the public, these talks focus on each curator’s current work and the curatorial context, art histories and cultural climates in which there are working. Book early to secure your place.
Carol Yinghua Lu
Monday 27 June, 6.30
Zarmeené Shah
Tuesday 28 June, 6.30
Pooja Sood
Wednesday 29 June, 6.30
