Culture Unbound: Hybrid Selves
-
When
- Where
-
Address
Cnr Oxford St & Greens Rd Paddington NSW 2021
-
Hours
11AM–12PM
-
Phone
+61 2 8936 0888
‘Culture Unbound’ is a panel discussion bringing together emerging artists, designers, and curators who draw upon Asian heritage and intercultural identities within their work. Spanning installation, performance, photography, moving image, and sound, their distinctive practices offer nuanced reinterpretations of cultural and religious imagery, iconography, and rituals. The conversation focuses on cross-generational histories, language, migration, displacement, and social identity. The program kicks off with an interactive performance led by Aarushi Zarthoshtimanesh.
Curated by Carey Choi-wan Cheng, Alexander Fry, Avery Shi, and Zhiting Zheng
Participants:
Adrian Mok is a Hong Kong-born Australian artist whose practice explores the intangible subtleties of Chinese culture and how to reconnect with cultural identity. His installations often recontextualise and reinterpret aspects of Chinese culture, specifically Taoist shrinal iconography. Adrian contemplates speculative futures of Taoist shrines where 'neo-worshipping' rituals may be conducted.
Christopher Mulia’s practice delves into the intricate layers of his Chinese-Indonesian identity, spanning photography, moving image, and sound. His recent work has focused on unravelling historical, cultural and personal ties to a Prisoners of War campsite located in Cowra, New South Wales. He has been continuously revisiting this site, questioning its connection to colonialism and discrimination.
Maria Thaddea is a young Asian-Australian interdisciplinary creative currently working on Gadigal Land. Her practice reflects on the sense of self and belonging within the diasporic migrant community. Informed by her cultural upbringing, her work combines Indonesian and Chinese imagery and rituals with an Australian twist to elicit intercultural and cross-generational understandings.
Aarushi Zarthoshtimanesh is an artist and writer who identifies as an Indian-born queer woman. Her practice spans the poetics of painting, installation, performance, and moving image. Her work aims to materialise and spatialise the felt reality of displacement, and re-examines how social identity is shaped – beyond borders and binaries.
—
Presented in conjunction with the A&D Annual, Australia’s largest national showcase of graduate art and design. Hear from the next generation of creative practitioners in this dynamic program of curated tours, sound walks, panel discussions, and talks curated by the Masters of Curating & Cultural Leadership cohort.
Event Images: Culture Unbound: Hybrid Selves for AD Annual 23 at UNSW Galleries, Sydney, 2023.