IAC Annual Address

(20%)

(80%)

2023 Annual Address
Parallax Vision - Understanding Chinese arts and culture in Australia, 1972-2023 by Professor Claire Roberts[[link]]

This talk draws on case studies of curatorial and research projects past and present in which Professor Robers has been involved, including New Art from China at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Queensland Art Gallery in 1992, Guan Wei’s Other Histories at the Powerhouse Museum in 2006, Xiao Lu’s Impossible Dialogue at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in 2019, her work on the artist Ian Fairweather and the large collection of modern Chinese woodcuts collected by Peter Townsend at the National Gallery of Australia and more recently as part of the Artistic Meridians research project at the University of Melbourne. She asks how the position from which we see things affects our understanding of what is seen and reflect critically on the complex subjectivities that are inherent in intercultural and intracultural enquiry concerning China and Australia.

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2021 Annual Address
Culture Fever: The Importance of the Arts by Professor Nicholas Jose[[link]]

Professor Nicholas Jose reflects on his lifelong engagement with China and argues for the vital role of the arts in fostering understanding across cultures. Drawing on experiences as a teacher, writer, diplomat, and cultural advocate, he recounts how China's "culture fever" of the 1980s inspired intellectual and creative exchange between Australia and China. He highlights the importance of education, literature, translation, and the arts in building meaningful people-to-people connections beyond politics and economics. In a period of strained bilateral relations, Jose emphasises that the arts remain a powerful means of communication, empathy, dialogue, and mutual respect, sustaining relationships across difference and distance.

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2019 Annual Address
Hugging Bears by Professor Carrillo Gantner AC[[link]]

In IAC's inaugural Annual Address, its Adjunct Professor Carrillo Gantner AC spoke about the history of Australia China relations and shared his experience of cultural exchange between the two countries. Professor Gantner is confident in the benefits of such cultural exchange. He said, “We will enjoy a rich culture that still draws its primary sources from Europe, from English classics such as Chaucer, Shakespeare and the King James Bible, but now enriched with other colours and textures from Chinese and Indian cultures and classics, the Peony Pavilion, and Dream of the Red Mansion, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.”

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