Acca Podcast

This episode featuring Eleanor Jackson is part of Six Walks an audio walking tour series commissioned by ACCA – Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Find bio, access notes, images and further information here: https://acca.melbourne/six-walks-episode-three-eleanor-jackson/ ABOUT THIS EPISODE: New parents are frequently told about the importance of art in a child’s development. From fostering creativity to visual, motor and social skills, art is considered a vehicle for enriching children’s communication abilities, nourishing new thoughts, and aiding expressive exploration. But how do we locate motherhood out of the domestic space and into the public realm, particularly the worlds of contemporary and public art? In her piece for Six Walks, Eleanor Jackson considers the ways in which mothers and caretakers occupy public space, blurring and reinforcing conventional understandings of mothering – using galleries, parks, libraries and the streets in a manner not always anticipated by planners and designers – a

This episode featuring Idil Ali is part of Six Walks an audio walking tour series commissioned by ACCA – Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Find bio, access notes, images and further information here: https://acca.melbourne/six-walks-episode-four-idil-ali/ ABOUT THIS EPISODE: In this episode of Six Walks, storyteller Idil Ali guides you through an extended period of over ten years of gentrification at the Carlton Housing Estate. Based on her personal perspective, having grown up and witnessed the effect of this gentrification on both herself and her community, Idil attempts to dig up memories buried underneath an updated infrastructure. Idil Ali is a proud Somali woman raised by the east African community in the Carlton flats. A settler on unceded Wurundjeri land, Idil embeds her belief in freedom, sovereignty and resistance into her work as a writer, performer, youth practitioner and community organiser. Curator: Annika Kristensen Audio technician: Simon Cotter ABOUT THE SERIES: Six Walks has bee

This episode featuring Timmah Ball is part of Six Walks an audio walking tour series commissioned by ACCA – Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Find bio, access notes, images and further information here: https://acca.melbourne/six-walks-episode-five-timmah-ball/ ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Hidden between parkland and suburbia along the Maribyrnong River, a 128-hectare site formerly occupied by the Australian Defence Force lies vacant as government planners and private developers speculate its future use. Timmah Ball takes us on a walk around the periphery – considering the colonial history of the site, its use by the military in producing explosives and ammunition, its eery abandonment in the present-day, and predicted future gentrification. Considering the resonance between the military history of the site and the unprecedented limitations imposed upon Melbourne during COVID-related lockdowns, Timmah asks, as the city begins to open again, what futures can we imagine as we walk past the site’s forbidding wal

This episode featuring Christos Tsiolkas is part of Six Walks an audio walking tour series commissioned by ACCA – Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Find bio, access notes, images and further information here: https://acca.melbourne/six-walks-episode-six-christos-tsiolkas/ ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Christos Tsiolkas first got to know the city by falling in love with film. In his walk through the laneways, streets and arcades of Melbourne’s CBD, Christos recounts memories of early childhood trips to the cinema with his parents, teenage escapes from the suburbs to cinemas in the city, and his own discovery of secret quarters and spaces. The cinema is a space of dreaming. It is also an art infused with eroticism. Many of Christos’s secret spaces may now have vanished, but in his recollections, as he walks and meanders through the city, we can imagine the flicker of projectors and the experience of bathing in the luminescent silver light of dreams. Christos Tsiolkas is a novelist, playwright, scriptwriter and e

Listen to ACCA’s Public Programs Coordinator Bianca Winataputri in conversation with ACCA Open artists Léuli Eshrāghi, Sean Peoples and Zanny Begg to discuss their new digital commissions that respond to the unusual times and cultural conditions in which they are produced. Zanny Begg’s filmic narrative presents psycho-philosophical reflections on histories of isolation, contagion and quarantine., whilst Sean Peoples and Léuli Eshrāghi draw on cosmology and the digital archive as an open source for speculative fiction and historical re-interpretation, and as a meeting place and a keeping place for ancestral and other forms of knowledge. From artificial intelligence to sound, animation, video and archives, this conversation will delve into the various possibilities of working in the digital realm. ACCA Open is a new series of contemporary art projects commissioned for the digital realm, initially conceived as a way for ACCA to continue to work with and support contemporary artists during COVID-19-related g

DEFINING MOMENTS LECTURE SERIES: Founding of Gallery 4A and the inaugural exhibition in 1997 with Dr Mikala Tai ABOUT THIS LECTURE: In this lecture, Dr Mikala Tai discusses the founding of Gallery 4A in Sydney and its inaugural exhibition in 1997 featuring three Asian-Australian artists: Emil Goh, Lindy Lee and Hou Leong, curated by Melissa Chiu, 4A’s first curator and director. Tai considers the exhibition and the context in which the organisation launched and how 4A continues to expand and thrive. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr Mikala Tai is the Director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, and a curator, researcher and academic specialising in contemporary Asian art and Australian design. Tai has collaborated with local, national and international organisations to strengthen ties between Australia and Asia. As an academic Tai has lectured at both RMIT and the University of Melbourne, and devised and delivered the inaugural Contemporary Asian Art syllabus at RMIT (2012 – ) and the first China Fieldwork Course

A lively digital discussion, Think Tank #2 will engage with ideas of collaboration, collectivity, community engaged practice and the commons, as part of the Think Tank series as part of ACCA’s forthcoming exhibition Who’s Afraid of Public Space? Presented in partnership with Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC), and moderated by FCAC Artistic Director and co-CEO Daniel Santangeli, the panel will include contributors Eugenia Flynn, Kent Morris, Roberta Joy Rich and Kate Sulan. Read more about the speakers via the link below. ABOUT 'WHO'S AFRAID OF PUBLIC SPACE?' Developed with an assembly of advisors and collaborators, Who’s Afraid of Public Space? is a research, publication and exhibition project which ACCA is developing over 2020–22. ACCA has partnered with Abbotsford Convent, Arts Project Australia, Blak Dot, Bus Projects and FCAC to present a dispersed program of exhibitions and projects that consider critical ideas as to what constitutes public culture and to ask who might it be for? More information

In this lecture, Dr Stephen Gilchrist considers two major exhibitions as key examples of Indigenous curation that encode Indigenous philosophies of critical care and value — 'Aratjara: Art of the First Australians' 1993 at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; and 'fluent: Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Judy Watson' at the Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale in 1997. Part of ACCA's lecture series 'Defining Moments: Australian Exhibition Histories 1968–1999'. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr Stephen Gilchrist belongs to the Yamatji people of the Inggarda language group of northwest Western Australia, and is Lecturer of Indigenous Art at the University of Sydney. He is a writer and curator who has worked with the Indigenous Australian collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2003–05); the British Museum, London (2008); the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2005–10); and the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (2011–13). He was also the Australian Studies Visiting Curator

DEFINING MOMENTS LECTURE SERIES CONTINUES: Listen to Dr Ted Gott discussing the landmark 1994 exhibition ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS’ at the National Gallery of Australia, which presented over 200 works on the subject of HIV/AIDS by more than 100 Australian and international artists. Part of ACCA's lecture series 'Defining Moments: Australian Exhibition Histories 1968–1999'. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr Ted Gott is Senior Curator of International Art, National Gallery of Victoria. He has curated and co-curated twenty-five exhibitions, including ‘Napoleon: Revolution to Empire’ (2012), ‘Gustave Moreau and the Eternal Feminine’ (2010), ‘Salvador Dalí: LiquidDesire’ (2009), ‘Modern Britain 1900–1960’ (2007), ‘Kiss of the Beast: From Paris Salon to King Kong’ (2005) and ‘The Impressionists: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay’ (2004). In his former role as Curator of European Art at the National Gallery of Australia, Gott curated ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS' (1994), among ot

Listen to ACCA’s Senior Curator Annika Kristensen in conversation with ACCA Open artists Archie Barry, Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey, and Amrita Hepi and Sam Lieblich to discuss their new digital commissions that respond to the unusual times and cultural conditions in which they are produced.

In our final ACCA Book Club, Ellen van Neerven discusses 'Throat', their newly published poetry collection, which explores love, language and land, and shines a light on Australia’s unreconciled past and precarious present with humour and heart. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning writer of Mununjali Yugambeh (South East Queensland) and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction. Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Ellen’s second book, a collection of poetry, Comfort Food, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize and highly commended for the 2016 Wesley Michel Wright Prize. Throat is Ellen’s highly anticipated second poetry collection. Further information: https://acca.melbourne/program/acca-book-club-ellen-van-neerven/

DEFINING MOMENTS LECTURE SERIES: The first Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery 1993 with Doug Hall AM ABOUT THIS LECTURE: In this lecture, Doug Hall AM reflects on the unique circumstances and legacy of the first Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane 1993, and how it was conceived as inseparable from the art museum’s conduct, collections development and its influence upon other institutional and programming activity. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Doug Hall AM was director, Queensland Art GalleryǀGOMA, Brisbane from 1987 to 2007. The first Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art was held in 1993. He conceived the idea for the Gallery of Modern Art and oversaw its development and opening in December 2006. He was Commissioner for the Australian exhibitions at the Venice Biennales in 2009 and 2011. He returned to Melbourne in 2010 and later appointed Associate Professor and Honorary Fellow, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne. He

In this edition of ACCA Book Club, Wotjobaluk writer, consultant, artist and curator Kat Clarke discussed the role of sensation and memory in the development of a new written work. Clarke read her story ‘The Road Trip’, written in association with the 2018 ACCA exhibition 'A Lightness of Spirit is the Measure of Happiness' and finished the session with the reading of a new poem. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Kat Clarke is a proud Wotjobaluk writer, consultant, artist and curator from the Wimmera. She is an active advocate within her own community and Land Council and holds strong relationships with multiple Melbourne and Victorian communities. Graduating from RMIT in Creative Writing and majored in Screenwriting, Clarke gradually developed her craft alongside learning the ways of her cultural lore and storytelling from community and Elders dear to her. She continues to acknowledge her teachings by incorporating her own interpretations that speak through different forms of her creative practices. Clarke’s skills and

In this session of ACCA's Book Club, author and activist Tony Birch and Max Delany discuss two of Birch's essays about site-specific writing, one written in reflection of a residency in Banff, Canada to research climate change and Indigenous knowledge, and the second considering the ecological pertinence of the walking/reflective/philosophical essay model. For more information, and links to read the essays available here: https://acca.melbourne/program/acca-book-club-tony-birch/

Defining Moments: 'The Aboriginal Memorial' at the 1988 Biennale of Sydney with Djon Mundine, OAM. ABOUT THE LECTURE: Djon Mundine OAM reflects on his personal account of the initial development of the idea of 'The Aboriginal Memorial' from a series of projects which involved all sections of the local art community, to the genesis of an idea for a memorial, through to the process of its realisation into the form it took at the '7th Biennale of Sydney' in 1988, and its subsequent permanent installation in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Djon Mundine OAM is a member of the Bandjalung people of northern New South Wales, and is an independent curator, activist and writer. His career has helped revolutionise the criticism and display of contemporary Aboriginal art, including through prominent curatorial positions held in many national and international institutions, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and Queensland Art Gallery. Betw

This conversation between Peter Cripps and Channon Goodwin considers the contemporary relevance of ideas of 'recession art', and follows on from the the lecture by Cripps and response from Goodwin, addressing the 1985 exhibition 'Recession art and other strategies' 1985 at the IMA, curated by Cripps, and the 2019 publication 'Permanent Recession', edited by Goodwin. This conversation is part of ACCA's Lecture Series Defining Moments: Australian Exhibition Histories 1968–1999. Listen to the lecture by Peter Cripps, and response by Goodwin here: https://soundcloud.com/acca_melbourne/defining-moments-peter-cripps-on-recession-art-and-other-strategies Read more about the lecture series here: https://acca.melbourne/series/defining-moments ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Peter Cripps is an artist and a former Director of the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane (1984–86). As an artist has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally since the 1970s, with recent major individual survey exhibitions including Peter Cr

A lecture by artist Peter Cripps on the exhibition 'Recession art and other strategies' 1985 at the IMA Brisbane, followed by a response from Channon Goodwin. Part of ACCA's Lecture Series 'Defining Moments: Australian Exhibition Histories 1968–1999'. Listen to the follow up conversation between Peter Cripps and Channon Goodwin (Director of Bus Projects, founding Convener of the All Conference network) on the ACCA Podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/acca_melbourne/defining-moments-peter-cripps-channon-goodwin-permanent-recession-art-labour-circumstance Further information: acca.melbourne/series/defining-moments- popism/ ABOUT THE LECTURE: In response to the social, political and cultural contexts of the 1970s and 80s, Peter Cripps curated the exhibition Recession Art, at the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), Brisbane in 1987. According to Cripps, ‘Recession art refers to art which is made under the pressure of little money and an insignificant market. It tends to be small, easy to produce, store and dispose

In this session of ACCA Book Club, Quentin Sprague and John Kean discusses Sprague’s 2020 book, 'The Stranger Artist' (published by Hardie Grant). ACCA Book Club is our new monthly lunch-time catch up about reading, writing and more. Each month, we invite a special guest and previous contributor to ACCA publications, to lead an open and active discussion with participants about a written or spoken-word work of their choice online via Zoom to a small group. Further information including speaker bios available here: https://acca.melbourne/program/acca-book-club-quentin-sprague-and-john-kean/ Recorded on 24 June 2020

In this first recorded ACCA Book Club, Elvis Richardson and Melinda Rackham discuss their forthcoming publication 'CoUNTess: Spoiling Illusions since 2008', specifically '‘Chapter 3: My Brilliant Art School Career’ with participants on Zoom. ACCA Book Club is our new monthly lunch-time catch up about reading, writing and more. Each month, we invite a special guest and previous contributor to ACCA publications, to lead an open and active discussion with participants about a written or spoken-word work of their choice online via Zoom to a small group. Further information including speaker bios available here: https://acca.melbourne/program/acca-book-club-elvis-richardson-melinda-rackham/ More information about CoUNTess Report available here: https://countess.report/ Recorded on 10 June 2020

Popism, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1982 Lecture by Judy Annear The exhibition POPISM was held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1982. At 24 years old, recent honours graduate and founder and editor of Art & Text magazine, Paul Taylor was invited to curate an exhibition of contemporary Australian art. The NGV was usually described as ‘the bunker’ with apparently little connection to the local art scene or experimental practice. POPISM came like a bolt from the blue, hard on the heels of the first five issues of Art &Text. This lecture will discuss the exhibition and the artists (Howard Arkley, David Chesworth, Ian Cox, Juan Davila, Richard Dunn, Paul Fletcher, Maria Kozic, Robert Rooney, Jane Stevenson, The Society for Other Photography, Imants Tillers, Peter Tyndall, Jenny Watson, and Tsk Tsk Tsk), provide some background and context to the ideas and practices, and the evolution of Taylor’s thinking and working. I will trace this through Taylor’s published writings, the various reactions