4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney, Australia | Arts and entertainment

4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art

Locality: Sydney, Australia

Phone: +61 2 9212 0380

Address: 181-187 Hay Street 2000 Sydney, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.4a.com.au

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25.01.2022 LOOK // Experience Eugenia Lim: The Ambassador at Griffith Regional Art Gallery until 18 October. Staged as a three-part project, the exhibition uncovers the Australian-Asian narrative by drilling down into racial politics, the social costs of manufacturing and the role of architecture in shaping society. Eugenia Lim: The Ambassador is a touring project presented by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and Museums & Galleries NSW. Captions: ... 1) Eugenia Lim, 'The Australian Ugliness' (Utzon dance), 2018, Digital C-type print, 39.5 x 59.5 cm, photo: Tom Ross, courtesy the artist. 2) Eugenia Lim, 'The People’s Currency', 2017, mixed media installation and performance, dimensions variable, photo: Zan Wimberley, courtesy the artist. 3) Eugenia Lim, 'The Australian Ugliness' (yogic shine), 2018, C-type print, 39.5 x 59.5 cm, photo: Tom Ross, courtesy the artist. 4) Eugenia Lim, 'Yellow Peril', 2015 (video still), single-channel HD video, colour, sound, 17:55 mins, courtesy the artist. 5) Eugenia Lim, 'Welcome Stranger', 2015, Papier-mâché, paint, 50.5 x 13 x 33.5 cm, photo: Zan Wimberley, courtesy of the artist. See more

25.01.2022 4A DIGITAL // In her new diary comic, Sleepless in Seattle, Filipino-Australian artist Mel Stringer Art explores the things she misses most about her home country of Australia, and how she has dealt with lockdown in North America, where she now lives. Read Stringer’s comic via: http://www.4a.com.au/mel-stringer-sleepless-seattle ... Mel Stringer is a Filipino-Australian Illustrator and Comic Artist currently based in Whidbey Island, a small island near Seattle, Washington. Her artwork ranges from cute, digitally-created curvy girls full of attitude to her more rough comic work that is distributed in the form of photocopied zines. A lot of her work is autobiographical in one way or another, whether it’s a direct diary entry or just inspired by her own experiences. The 4A Digital Program in 2020 is supported by the City of Sydney. Image courtesy the artist.

22.01.2022 READ // Unravel the social fabrics of colourism, diaspora and Filipino languages in Patricia Arcilla's review of Holding Patterns: Crossing Threads, exhibited at 4A in August. In the Running Dog essay, Arcilla 'travels' to the Philippines via Google Street View to explore the topographical and cultural ideologies that inform the textile-driven practices of Lauren and Kass Hernandez, who collaborate under the name Crossing Threads. "By presenting brownness as a landscape... to be traversed rather than a flat homogenous thing to be eliminated, UNDER MY SKIN does more than just affirm that brown is beautiful," Arcilla says, referring to the artist's disc-shaped work and its multi-brown gradients. "It positions it as central to the form and image of the Philippinesnot just of the bodies that emerge from it, but of its cities, too." Read the review via: https://rundog.art/holding-patterns-part2-crossing-threads/ Image: Crossing Threads, UNDER MY SKIN, 2020, bamboo, chenille, Egyptian cotton, hemp, Japanese silk, jute, leather, linen, merino wool, mulberry tussah, raffia and wire on galvanised steel frame Handwoven by Lauren and Kass Hernandez. Holding Patterns: Crossing Threads; photo: Kai Wasikowski for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, courtesy of the artists.

19.01.2022 OUT NOW // Add a creative spring to your stepwith our third 4A Kids Kit, featuring artists Nathan Beard, Freda Chiu and Shireen Taweel Invent fun characters, make fingernail art, or create cool illustrations with our easy-to-do steps, available to download now. Explore our brand-new Spring issue, as well as other fun children’s activities to try at home: www.4a.com.au/4a-kids/... 4A Kids is a digital project that connects kids with Asian and Asian Australian contemporary art, culture and ideas. The 2020 4A Kids program is supported by the City of Sydney. Images courtesy the artists See more

18.01.2022 4A DIGITAL // Bop to the sublime beats of Strict Face’s latest playlist, created for 4A Digital. The eclectic mix features a 56-minute sonic journey of home-listening favourites collated by the Filipino artist. Give this a full spin on 4A’s Mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/4A_aus/strict-face Strict Face is a Filipino producer/DJ hailing from Adelaide, South Australia. Whilst a member of the NLV Records roster since its inception, he has also released music on Local Action ...and Gobstopper Records over the years. He has frequently worked internationally, having toured throughout the UK & Europe and hosted radio shows in Paris, Hong Kong and London, while establishing an ongoing relationship with the underground club music scene in both his hometown and throughout Australia. The 4A Digital 2020 program is supported by the City of Sydney. Image courtesy the artist. See more

17.01.2022 LOOK // Did you know the glass orbs cooped up inside Sofiyah Ruqayah's work, Harbingers of Doom, contain liquids and crystals that respond to temperature changes in our environment? Escape the heat today and visit our Haymarket gallery to witness these sculptural works mutate as the weather cools down. On Thursdays, 4A stays open until 8pm. Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah is showing until 23 October: http://www.4a.com.au/holding-patterns-part-four-sofiyah-ru/ Images: Sofiyah Ruqayah, Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah, Installation view, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, October 2020, photo: Kai Wasikowski for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, courtesy the artist.

17.01.2022 NEWS // We're thrilled to announce the appointment of Michael Rolfe to the 4A Board. Michael Rolfe is currently the CEO of Museums and Galleries of NSW, and has over 30 years involvement working primarily in the visual arts. Rolfe brings an in-depth overview of funding, governance and policy, and importantly, a commitment to supporting art and artists. Rolfe says, ‘I’ll be retiring and finishing my time at M&G later this year and couldn’t think of a more exciting organisatio...n than 4A with which to maintain an involvement. Rolfe will be joining 4A's existing board members Adrian Williams, Susan Acret, Caroline Choy, John Choi, Maree Di Pasquale, Julie Ewington, and Hannah Skrzynski, and incoming board member Chun Yin Rainbow Chan. Keep up to date with 4A announcements and programs via our e-newsletter. Not on our mailing list? Subscribe via: https://bit.ly/subscribeto4A Image: Michael Rolfe; photo: Vanessa Low, courtesy Michael Rolfe.

16.01.2022 OPPORTUNITY // Applications open for 4A Artistic Director / Chief Executive Officer 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art is seeking an Artistic Director / CEO to lead this dynamic and vital organisation. This role plays an active and influential role within Australia’s contemporary art sector and leads Australia’s engagement with Asia through visual art. ... The Artistic Director / CEO of 4A will have a passion for and deep knowledge of contemporary Asian and Australian arts and culture. They will be an inspiring leader and an entrepreneurial thinker, with the ability to collaborate and to work independently. In this role they will provide the creative vision, strategic leadership, management expertise, and financial oversight and accountability for the organisation. For full details or to apply for the role, visit: http://www.4a.com.au/opportunities/ Applications close 19 November 2020, 5pm See our website for full captions.

13.01.2022 ONLINE PANEL // Join Dr. Shuxia Chen and Dr Yu-Chieh Li on Wednesday 2 December 6-8pm AEDT via Zoom for the online panel: UNSW Art & Design and 4A present: Photographs, Photocopies, and Lianhuanhua: The Early Works of Wang Youshen, 1985-1990. The speakers will discuss photography, photocopies, and lianhuanhua (or 'linked/serial pictures'), within the context of Wang Youshen's early works, as well as the reproductions of this experimental medium, and how this has endowed tradi...tional genres with a new 'aura' in China during the 1980s. Dr. Shuxia Chen will also shed light on the emergence of contemporary art in China from the 1990s by unpacking how this new 'aura' broke boundaries in a manner typical of postmodern or contemporary art practices, by crossing over between media, materials and genres. Info/RSVP: http://www.4a.com.au/unsw-art-design-presents-4a-photograp/ Image: Wang Youshen, 1990, Portrait Series, 1990-

12.01.2022 FRIENDS OF 4A // Hosted online from 10-13 November, the Know My Name Virtual Conference celebrates all women as artists, activists, researchers, intellectuals and mentors now and into the future. Foregrounding First Nations perspectives and diverse voices, the event will bring together leading and emerging Australian and international voices from arts and academia to share ideas, insights and creative practice. Through keynotes, performances, panels, discussions and artis...t-led approaches, the conference will consider historical and contemporary experiences of gender and feminism in the arts to imagine new futures. As part of the conference, 4A Director Dr Mikala Tai will facilitate the panel Communities, Collectives & Lineages on 12 November, featuring Dr Janine Burke, Fayen Ke-Xiao d’Evie, Associate Professor Mikala Dwyer and Bhenji Ra. On 13 November 4A Board member and writer, curator and broadcaster Julie Ewington will facilitate the panel Future Practices, joined by Atong Atem Zoe Butt, Associate Professor Tara McDowell, Liz Nowell, Yhonnie Scarce and Ainslie Templeton. Visit nga.gov.au/knowmyname or National Gallery of Australia to access the full program and speakers list or to secure your place Images: (1-2) KMN speakers Zoe Butt; photo: courtesy Le Thanh Tien / Tara McDowell; photo: Linsey Rendell (3) Know My Name virtual conference featuring Sue Ford, Faces, 1976; courtesy National Gallery of Australia. See more

12.01.2022 FINAL DAYS // Don't miss Eugenia Lim: The Ambassador, showing at Griffith Regional Art Gallery until 18 October. Presented as a three-part project, The Ambassador sees Lim transform herself into invented fictional characters who traverse through time and cultures to explore how national identities and stereotypes cut, divide and bond our globalised world. The exhibition uncovers the Australian-Asian narrative by drilling down into racial politics, the social costs of manufa...cturing and the role of architecture in shaping society. This three-year touring exhibition is presented by 4A and Museums & Galleries NSW. Image: Eugenia Lim, ‘The Ambassador’, 2017, In residence at the Robin Boyd Foundation, photo: Tim Hillier, courtesy the artist.

11.01.2022 ON NOW // Visit 4A today to experience Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah, showing until 23 October. Working across drawing, installation, collage and painting, Sofiyah Ruqayah explores the strange territories between human and nonhuman realities, particularly themes of mutation, dream and spirit worlds. Our Haymarket gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday, and we stay open until 8pm on Thursdays. Info: www.4a.com.au/holding-patterns-part-four-sofiyah-ruqayah ... Image: Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah (installation view), 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney. Floor: Sofiyah Ruqayah, Harbingers of Doom (detail), digital collage print on satin, faux fur, plywood, storm glass, dimensions variable, courtesy the artist. Wall: Sofiyah Ruqayah, Self-fulfilling prophecies, 2020, digital collage print on paper, pins, 124.9 x 42cm, courtesy the artist. Wall: Sofiyah Ruqayah, Self-fulfilling prophecies, 2020, digital collage print on paper, pins, 124.9 x 42cm, photo: Kai Wasikowski, courtesy the artist. See more

09.01.2022 NEWS // We’re delighted to welcome Chun Yin Rainbow Chan to the 4A Board. Chan says, I had the privilege of working with 4A as an artist in 2016 and have since been involved with 4A’s international residencies, public programs, 4A Papers and Club 4A. The gallery has nurtured my artistic practice, advocating for my work in both local and international forums. I am honoured and extremely excited to be joining the board. I look forward to giving back to the organisation and th...e art community, which has done so much for me over the last few years. Chun Yin Rainbow Chan is a vocalist, music producer and interdisciplinary artist. Driven by a mixture of DIY aesthetics and postcolonial discourse, her works investigates the diasporic imagination through tales of love and loss. Chan has performed at Sydney Opera House, Vivid, MONA FOMA, Gallery of Modern Art, Iceland Airwaves, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and Tai Kwun. Her record Pillar (2019) was nominated for the Australian Music Prize and featured on community radio nationwide. In 2017, her single Let Me won the FBi SMAC Award for Best Song. Chan is currently part of Artspace’s One Year Studio Program and is researching Weitou women’s oral history. She is a passionate mentor and has worked with MusicNSW, I.C.E Parramatta, Hack Sounds and Sydney Conservatorium where she teaches Contemporary Music Studies. In 2020, Chan received her MFA from UNSW Art & Design. Chan will be joining 4A's existing board members Adrian Williams, Susan Acret, Caroline Choy, John Choi, Maree Di Pasquale, Julie Ewington, and Hannah Skrzynski, and incoming board member Michael Rolfe. Read more via our e-newsletter: http://bit.ly/4AnewsOct2020 Image: Chun Yin Rainbow Chan; photo Zan Wimberley, courtesy Chun Yin Rainbow Chan.

06.01.2022 ON NOW // Step inside Sofiyah Ruqayah's dreams, as the artist presents her first solo exhibition at 4A, currently on view in our ground floor gallery. "Sofiyah Ruqayah’s practice emerges from the embodied myths of her familial past, states of mutation and her own dream realms," says exhibition curator Reina Takeuchi. "Informed by her Islamic upbringing and infatuation with deep sea creatures, her art-making conflates human and anthropocentric worlds, bringing the view...er’s focus to bodily plurality and its many presences. By rendering amorphous and dreamy creatures through painting and collage, she creates spillages of metallised film, ink and fur, which speak not only to the abject but to all that is spiritual and luscious." 4A is open to the public from Tuesday - Sunday. For gallery hours and exhibition info, visit: www.4a.com.au/holding-patterns-part-four-sofiyah-ruqayah/ #4Aaustralia #HoldingPatterns4A Images: Sofiyah Ruqayah, Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah, Installation view, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, October 2020, photo: Kai Wasikowski for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, courtesy the artist. See more

06.01.2022 In this short video, artist Dean Cross reflects on his site-responsive work, Monuments, on view at 4A’s first floor gallery until 1 October 2020. The video also features an introduction by 4A Deputy Director Bridie Moran, who curated Dean Cross: Monuments as a precursor to the 2021 Drawn by stones exhibition. Monuments unearths the counter-histories of colonisation through memory, memorialisation and ceramic traditions. The work comprises handfuls of white ochre from Ngunnawa...l/Ngambri Country, where the artist grew up, and gathered with permission from local elder and custodian of the land Aunty Matilda House. The ochre builds a grid that spreads across the gallery floor, with each handful representing one year of colonisation in Australia. A number of the ‘monuments’ are interspersed with gold leaf, with visitors invited to gently walk amongst the work to consider the subtly-shifting installation. Dean Cross’ work is staged at 4A this year as an important moment of reflection, memorialisation and challenge. Download the transcript via: http://www.4a.com.au/monuments/

06.01.2022 CLOSING TODAY // Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah closes Thursday 29 October at 8pm. Visit 4A to experience the last exhibition at our Haymarket gallery this year! Read between the lines in this short video featuring Sofiyah Ruqayah in conversation with curator Reina Takeuchi about her first solo exhibition at 4A. Filmed at Parramatta Artists’ Studios, the Indonesian-Australian artist reveals the themes and social nuances behind her digital collage text work, Self-fulf...illing prophecies, and the word play that surrounds it. For our non-Sydney friends, stay tuned for our upcoming podcast ep featuring the full interview between Ruqayah and Takeuchi Credits: Video filmed at Parramatta Artists' Studios, courtesy 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art / Installation and detail images: Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah, October 2020, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney; photo: Kai Wasikowski / Studio image: Sofiyah Ruqayah in her studio, 2020; photo by Jacquie Manning, courtesy Parramatta Artists’ Studios / All images and videos courtesy Sofiyah Ruqayah, 2020.

05.01.2022 ON NOW // Experience Eugenia Lim: The Ambassador at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery until 16 January 2021 Co-presented by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and Museums & Galleries of NSW, this touring project presents The Ambassador series, a three-part project that sees artist Eugenia Lim transform herself into invented fictional personas, traversing through time and cultures to explore how national identities and stereotypes cut, divide and bond our globalised world. ... Throughout each of her works, The Ambassador takes on new roles in uncovering the Asian-Australian narrative drilling down into racial politics, the social costs of manufacturing and the role of architecture in shaping society. Images: Eugenia Lim, The Ambassador, 2017, in residence at the Robin Boyd Foundation; Photo: Tim Hillier, courtesy the artist. See more

04.01.2022 ARCHIVE // Commissioned by 4A in 2013, Vertical Villages was a socially-engaged contemporary art project that investigated the experiences of international students living in Sydney’s CBD, as well as the relationship between the daily lives of communities and their urban and spatial environments. Vertical Villages was a collaboration between leading Jakarta-based art collective ruangrupa ArtLab and Australian artist Keg de Souza, who works between the disciplines of arch...itecture, food, film, mapping and dialogical projects. Throughout July the artists were based in our Haymarket ground floor gallery, and utilised the street-front space as an opportunity to meet and collaborate with international students. To learn more, visit: www.4a.com.au/vertical-villages Images: Vertical Villages, Installation view, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, September-October 2013; images courtesy the artists. See more

04.01.2022 READ // This week, we dive into Mother Ideal, Lee Lai’s comic homage to Hayao Miyazaki’s iconic animated film, Ponyo. Commissioned for 4A Digital, the short tale is a reminiscent observation of Ponyo’s sea-dwelling parents: http://www.4a.com.au/lee-lai-mother-ideal/ Lee Lai is an artist from Naarm/Melbourne. She currently makes comics and illustrations in Tio’tia:ke (known as Montreal, Quebec) and has been featured in The New Yorker, The Lifted Brow, Room Magazine, and Meanjin Journal. Her first graphic novel Stone Fruit is due to be released by Fantagraphics in 2021, and has been translated into four languages. The 4A Digital 2020 program is supported by the City of Sydney. Images courtesy the artist.

02.01.2022 ON NOW // Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah continues at 4A until 23 October. Sofiyah Ruqayah is a Sydney-based artist working across drawing, installation, collage and painting to explore the strange territories between human and nonhuman realities Visit our Haymarket gallery to experience her solo exhibition, which include the wall-based text piece: Self-fulfilling prophecies. Holding Pattern curator Reina Takeuchi, describes the concept behind this work: "Ruqayah’s ...amorphous creatures luminously spill out from her painted and sculpted forms. She then renders them through digital interventions, and employs a multiplicity of technical crafts simultaneously by modifying and mutating flesh, cutting and blending in Photoshop, and using physical assemblage." Read the full essay and to find out more about the exhibition: http://www.4a.com.au/holding-patterns-part-four-sofiyah-ruq Image: Sofiyah Ruqayah, Self-fulfilling prophecies, 2020, digital collage print on paper, pins, 124.9 x 42cm, photo: Kai Wasikowski for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, courtesy the artist.

02.01.2022 FLASHBACK // Listen to excerpts from a candid conversation between Indonesian-Australian artist Sofiyah Ruqayah and 4A Assistant Curator Reina Takeuchi, held during Ruqayah's exhibition‘ 'Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah at 4A, 3-29 October 2020. Recorded in the bustling environment of Parramatta Artists’ Studios, the interview explored how inspiration, rest and balance have guided Ruqayah through lockdown, and how these learnings informed her 4A show. Access a transcript of... the conversation: www.4a.com.au//4A-TALKS_Transcript_Sofiyah-Ruqayah-Reina-T Listen to the full audio interview: https://www.mixcloud.com//4a-talks-sofiyah-ruqayah-reina-t 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art acknowledges the Burramattagal people of the Darug nation, the traditional custodians of the Land on which this interview took place.

02.01.2022 ON SOON // 4A is pleased to present Holding Patterns: Sofiyah Ruqayah, on view at 4A from 1 - 23 October. The solo exhibition considers the precarious relationship between futility and hope that arises through the investigation of dreams. Sofiyah Ruqayah is a Sydney-based artist working across drawing, installation, collage and painting to explore the strange territories between human and nonhuman realities. She is interested in themes of mutation, dream and spirit worlds.... Drawing upon imagined and felt connections between various bodies, presences and memories, as well familial and cultural myths of embodiment, Sofiyah's practice invites us to speculate on our nonhuman origins and intertwined fates. For more info, or to register to attend the exhibition, visit www.4a.com.au/holding-patterns-part-four-sofiyah-ruqayah/ Image: Sofiyah Ruqayah, ‘spit yourself out’, 2019, photo: Peter Morgan, courtesy the artist. @sofiyahruqayah #SofiyahRuqayah4A #4Aaustralia See more

01.01.2022 4A PAPERS // We’re elated to announce that the ninth issue of 4A Papers is out now, featuring contributions from Eunice Andrada, Luise Guest, Mikala Tai, Reina Takeuchi, Mohamad Faizuan Bin Mat, and Vladislav Sludskiy. Orbiting around the perspectives of NOW, THEN, MAKE, TALK, and SEE, Issue 9 presents new interviews, surveys, and diaristic essays that explore social activism, township folklore, matrilineal energy, cultural legacies, and body-centred tenderness. Read an ...introduction by 4A Papers Editor Mariam Arcilla and access stories from Kazakhstan, Malaysia, China, Australia, Borneo, and the Philippines via Issue 9 here: www.4a.com.au/4a_papers/issue-9-november-2020/ Visit our website for full image credits.

01.01.2022 MAKE // Our Spring issue of 4A Kids is out now! For our third edition, Freda Chiu presents: Let’s Make Fun Charactersan activity that invites kids to create a new person, animal, object or creature! Our 4A Kids kits feature fun projects for children to try at home, created by artists based on their own practice! Chiu is a Sydney-based freelance illustrator and educator at The University of Technology Sydney. Her art is inspired by her love of children’s pi...cture books, indie comics, horror movies and good stories. Make a fun character with Chiu today: www.4a.com.au/create-character-freda-chiu 4A Kids is a digital project that connects kids with Asian and Asian Australian contemporary art, culture and ideas. Designed for 5-17 year olds, our kits can be adapted for all ages! The 4A Kids 2020 program is supported by the City of Sydney.