The Power Institute

A panel discussion on how artists and curators today are tackling the medium of history as an ethical project.

Head to our bio to register!

Between 2005 and 2019, Hong Kong-born Australian artist John Young Zerunge created a body of work called ‘The History Projects’, exploring diasporic memory, transcultural identity, and what Young has described as an ‘ethical responsibility’ towards the past. This panel builds on themes from a major new publication discussing this cycle of works, The History Projects, edited by Olivier Krischer and newly published by the Power Institute.

John and Olivier will be joined by esteemed curator and writer, Mikala Tai, one of the book’s contributors, alongside artist Jenna Lee, who will participate in “And still I rise”, at the AGNSW later this year. Together they will discuss how artists and curators today are tackling the medium of history as an ethical project, navigating contentious and contending histories, and how art can still foster new forms of subjectivity and community outside the stubbornly narrow narratives of Australia's settler colonial history.

.mlee

Image: Installation of John Young, OPEN MONUMENT, 2015, Permanent architectural monument, Len T Fraser Reserve, Ballarat.

Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Sydney, with support from the Power Institute, is honoured to host the exclusive Sydney appearance by founding members of the award-winning theatre company Forced Entertainment from the UK, following the company’s appearance at the Adelaide Festival.

In Place (Once More) of Another is the title of this, the 15th Rex Cramphorn Memorial Lecture, written by Artistic Director, Tim Etchells and delivered by Terry O'Connor, with Etchells joining the audience via video call for Q&A.

In this lecture, Etchells and O’Connor will stage a particular tension at the heart of performance. Exploring the roles of messenger, stand-in, actor and proxy, the lecture addresses the business of ‘standing in for’ or ‘taking the place of’ another and the role that language and performance play in marking or invoking the presence of absent bodies.

The Sydney Asian Art Series is back for 2025! This year the Series is convened by Olivier Krischer and Peyvand Firouzeh, and will focus on the theme of care.

Head to our website to explore the whole series, and register for upcoming events: www.powerinstitute.org.au/sydney-asian-art-series-2025

The Sydney Asian Art Series is co-presented by the Power Institute and VisAsia at the Art Gallery of NSW.

Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Images:
1/ From Atsunobu Katagiri’s Sacrifice series, 2013 –2014. Flowers: Misohagi (Lythrum anceps), Jerusalem artichoke, Crepe myrtle. Location: Ukedo, Namine Town. MOA Collection, 3542/3. Courtesy of the artist and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Vancouver, Canada.

2/ Rescued, damaged photos found in Yamamoto-chō in Watari District, Miyagi Prefecture at A Future for Memory at MOA, 2021. Photo by Alina Ilyasova. Courtesy of the Lost & Found Project and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, Vancouver, Canada.

3/ Opening pages from a monumental Qur'an manuscript, produced circa late 20th century, from the Toubia and Letitia Hachem Rare Book Collection, American University of Beirut (AUB). Image courtesy of AUB Library/Archives.

4/ Luke Ching, Flash Mob Leaves Sweeping; Our Brooms 大家的掃把, 2020.

Join us tonight to celebrate our 2025 Nicholas & Angela Curtis Cité Internationale des Arts Residency Fellows!

6pm-7:30pm at the Schaeffer Library, RC Mills Building, University of Sydney.

More details in our bio link!

Thanavi Chotpradit is visiting Sydney in October as the 2024 SAAS Scholar in Residence. As part of her visit, Thanavi will be hosting a small seminar here at the University, focused on her work as curator of the 2021 Asian Art Biennial in Taiwan. Spots are limited, so if you're interested head to our bio to register now! @olivier_krischer @artgalleryofnsw @thanavichotpradit The Sydney Asian Art Series is co-presented by the Power Institute and VisAsia art the Art Gallery of NSW.

Make sure to register now for Thanavi Chotpradit's public lecture, as part of her time in Sydney as our 2024 Sydney Asian Art Series Scholar in Residence. Link in bio! @artgalleryofnsw @thanavichotpradit @olivier_krischer

This week we welcome our 2024 Sydney Asian Art Series Scholar in Residence, Thanavi Chotpradit! If you already know Thanavi's work, you'll know how lucky we are to have her here - if not, we hope you'll get to know her work over the coming weeks. Either way, be sure to join us for Thanavi's public lecture on October 30! Thanavi Chotpradit is a lecturer of history of modern and contemporary art in Thailand at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Archaeology, Silpakorn University, Bangkok. She is an independent curator, a member of the editorial collective of a peer-review journal Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia and a co-founder of “readtherunes”, a Bangkok-based publisher. She participated in a cross-regional research program, “Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art,” developed by the Power Institute Foundation for Art and Visual Culture, University of Sydney, Australia, and funded by the Getty Foundation’s Connecting Art Histories initiative (2015-2016). Her research on the photographs of the 6th October Massacre (1976) is funded by the National Research Council of Thailand (2019-2022). She is a co-curator of Phantasmapolis: 2021 Asian Art Biennial at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Her latest article “Shattering Glass Ceiling: Art and Activism in Thailand since 2020” is published in The Routledge Companion to Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century, (Routledge, New York and London, 2023). Her areas of interest include modern and Thai contemporary art in relation to memory studies, war commemoration, Thai politics and archival practices. @artgalleryofnsw @thanavichotpradit @olivier_krischer

VISIONS is tomorrow! While day tickets have sold out, some $10 tickets to individual sessions will be available each day on the door.

15-17 August 2024 and the MCA Australia

Find out me via the link in our bio.

Co-presented by the MCA Australia and The Power Institute.

Kate Crawford will be one of the keynote speakers for VISIONS, happening later this week!

15-17 August 2024 at the MCA Australia.

Find out more via the link in our bio.

Co-presented by the MCA Australia and The Power Institute.

How does vision operate as a structure of power?

Huey Copeland, J. Joon Lee, Katerina Teaiwa, Erin Vink, Stephen Gilchrist (moderator) and Nick Croggon (moderator) will be in conversation as part of VISIONS, a forum on the contemporary art, science and politics of seeing.

15-17 August 2024 at the MCA Australia.

Head to the link in our bio to find out more!

Co-presented by the MCA Australia and The Power Institute.