Catch up Online
In the current exhibition Individual and Universal: The World We Share at the Institute for Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture (IAC), one of the three featured artists, Nelson Nghe, specially created a new work entitled “I Bet You”, an installation of a house covered in lottery tickets accompanied by flashing lights and a slideshow of photos showing poker machines being smashed in the 1930s. The work invites the viewer to contemplate the lived experience of gambling harm as a family member, whereby houses have been gambled away whilst most of us dream of owning a home as part of the “Australian dream”. The work has attracted a lot of attention and consistently pulled in viewers to the exhibition. Nelson has also created paintings with the title and on-the-painting text “Blow up the Pokies”, inspired by the title of the 1999 hit song by the well-known Australian band The Whitlams. Poker machines, or the pokies as they are called in Australia, nicknamed “one-arm bandits” in the 20th century, are called in Chinese “tiger machines” 老虎机, indicating your money and your life will be devoured by this relentless beast.
In this talk, Dr Pamela See (Xue Mei-Ling) shared how she has been acknowledging the Chinese histories of geographic locations in Australia and inserting them into their associated cultural landscapes. These endeavours were examined across the spheres of gallery exhibitions, participatory art, and public art. She shared the inspiration behind her artworks and the processes she employed to produce them. Her techniques were examined in both historical and contemporary context, ranging from paper effigies to cast bronze. This talk is intended to foster dialogue about the role art can play in historically instating communities. The lecture may be particularly suited to artists aspiring to make public art or produce content for museums.
To hear the shared life-changing and fascinating experiences and stories by three trailblazing Australians who lived and worked in China right after the diplomatic relationship was established, we are very privileged to have invited the China specialist and first Australian Ambassador to China, Professor Stephen FitzGerald, the Sydney Morning Herald China correspondent, Yvonne Preston (1975-1977) and Warren Duncan, the ABC China correspondent (1975-1978).
