Acca Podcast

Control / Escape: A conversation with dancer and choreographer Shelley Lasica How and what do you present to an audience? Where does the line between yourself and your work begin? Tai and Shelley discuss the assumptions about ‘revealing the truth’ in dance and how creating complexity and a kind of ‘unhooked narrative’ that is not linear or logocentric might be a more exciting way of looking at things. We also discuss the idea of playing with ‘the gaze,’ the fraught relationship between needing approval from an audience and making work within a female body.

Tempering Tenacity: A conversation with visual artist Lou Hubbard How can we find our true methodology and maintain a healthy obsession? Tai and Lou talk about taking your time in life to find your true creative path. They also talk about tenacity, bossiness and learning how to defer control and practice patience. Lou says ‘The artist in me doesn’t sit down’ and they explore what it means to be truly obsessed by your work, but how to keep a healthy balance with your family and ‘shave away the extraneous’ aspects of your life.

Her Life in The Nude: A conversation with performer and director Maude Davey How can we be open and honest and take risks, but still feel safe? Tai and Maude talk about making work about women and what exactly does it mean to take risks in front of an audience? They share the frustration of finding it easier to write about other people’s work than their own and how to deal with failure. They ask the hard question; ‘What happens as you get older and your body can’t perform in the same way anymore?’

Non Binary Futures: A conversation with guitarist Tonié Field Don’t put me in a box! How can we celebrate and encourage fluidity? Tai and Tonié discuss what it means to be a non-binary and progressive artist in a classical world. How might we express overtly political ideas through an abstract language like music. They share a boisterous and heartfelt journey through the worlds of Drag, Burlesque and Fashion as well as the serious issues of feeling safe within the educational institution and getting ‘Tired of the fight.’

Dark Laughs: A conversation with sculptor Claire Lambe How do we dig up dark memories from our past and make them funny? Tai and Claire share a lively chat about dark satire as a way of communication in art practice and how the past, present and future can all exist in an artwork right now. Claire shares tales of the ‘white-knuckle-ride’ that is making work and how she manages to deal with feelings of vulnerability and stress.

Window to the Inside: A conversation with painter Katherine Hattam How do we access our True Selves? Tai and Katherine discuss how making and depicting space can merge the inside (mental) world with the outside (public) world of politics and ideas. Reflecting on Katherine’s interest in psychoanalysis and unconscious time vs real time and how family life can be political.

World Weaver: A conversation with visual artist Chaco Kato How do we fit into the art world? Can we create our own world? Tai and Chaco explore ideas of how and why you might create your own support network, collective or cross-community project. Chaco literally weaves her own context and explores traditionally domestic crafts on a giant scale.

As a prelude to ACCA’s major exhibition, 'Unfinished Business: Perspectives on art and feminism' (15 Dec 2017 – 25 March 2018), this panel discussion starts the conversation about the historical legacies and new debates within feminism and discuss the ‘unfinished business’ of feminism today. Speakers: Atong Atem is a South Sudanese artist and writer whose work explores postcolonial practices in the diaspora, the relationship between public and private spaces and the politics of looking and being looked at. Paola Balla is a Wemba-Wemba and Gunditjmara artist, curator and academic, Victoria University, and co-curator of Unfinished Business. Emily Floyd is an artist and collaborator with Mary Featherson on the exhibition Round Table. Anne Marsh is a Professorial Research Fellow at the Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne, whose work focuses on performance art, photography, feminist art history and theory. Editing and sound by Eric Demetriou

An open discussion with Danny Butt, Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Professor Barbara Bolt and Professor Ashok Mathur discussing the state of artistic research in the academy and its future. This event was supported by Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne 24 October 2017

Diego Ramírez-Lovering, Deputy Dean and Associate Dean (Engagement) MADA and Co-founding Managing Director of Monash Architecture Studio (MAS) explores the west Mexican city of Guadalajara. In particular, Professor Ramírez-Lovering focuses on the city’s ‘Opportunistic Urbanism’, how Guadalajara is increasingly governed by opportunity, and shaped by the ad hoc, the contingent and the easily obtainable. Presented by Abercrombie & Kent at ACCA. Monday 16 October 2017

Justine Clark, Editor, writer and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at The University of Melbourne and Maryam Gusheh, Director of Architecture at The University of New South Wales explore the central Iranian city and former Persian capital Isfahan. Presented by Abercrombie & Kent Image: Courtesy Abercrombie & Kent

Founding editor of The Saturday Paper, Erik Jensen discusses the pluses and minuses of digital technologies and presents the current state of traditional media with the rise of digital technologies and communications. Wednesday 6 September 2017 Future Forums Media Partner: The Saturday Paper

Hosted within the common space of Céline Condorelli’s installation, this discussion responds to expanded notions of organised labour in the arts, who the risk-bearers are and what their reward. Speakers: Colleen Chen – Lawyer and President, Young Workers Centre and founder of Interns Australia Ben Eltham – Writer, Journalist, Researcher, Creative Producer & Social Commentator Sarah Gory – General Manager, un Projects and former Director, Queensland Poetry Festival Lucie McIntosh – Artist, Curator and Chair of Directors at BLINDSIDE Tuesday 29 August 2017

'Public Art and the City: creating meaning by disrupting the everyday and enhancing the human experience' is a discussion about building relationships between people, how public art will play a role in the City of Melbourne’s Southbank Boulevard transformation project, and the future of public art in Melbourne. Speakers: Charlotte Day — Director, MUMA (Chair) Rob Adams — Director City Design and Projects, City of Melbourne Vaari Claffey — Curator and Public Art Strategist for Southbank Jefa Greenaway — Director, Greenaway Architects Introduction from Max Delany — Artistic Director and CEO, ACCA Presented by Public Art Melbourne & The City of Melbourne at ACCA Saturday 19 August 2017

Open Spatial Workshop (OSW) – a collaborative art group comprising Bianca Hester, Terri Bird and Scott Mitchell – delivers a WRITING & CONCEPTS lecture reflecting on the relationship between the process of writing and the development of social, political and philosophical questions within contemporary arts and cultural practice. Thursday 24 August 2017

In this Future Forum ACMI Director Katrina Sedgwick discusses the future of workplaces for humans and non-humans; including the origins of ACMI X, a 60-seat co-working space for selected creative enterprises designed to encourage collaboration between different creative industries. The Future Forums series is supported by The Saturday Paper Wednesday 23 August 2017

Mark Burry, Executive Architect and Researcher at the Sagrada Familia Basilica, Barcelona & Professor of Urban Futures at the Melbourne School of Design at The University of Melbourne speaks about his experience of Barcelona and Antonio Gaudí’s iconic La Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction for over 130 years. Monday 14 August 2017 Presented by Abercrombie & Kent

Lecturer and practitioner Jacqui Alexander discusses spaces for cohabitation. How we might live and work together more sustainably into the future and how the sharing economy is affecting our cities and communities. Wednesday 9 August 2017 Media Partner: The Saturday Paper

New Financial Year Visioning: Obligate Parasitism: Shop/Work by WORK/SHOP participating artist Debris Facility Pty Ltd Thursday 3 August 2017 The Debris Facility Pty Ltd was founded in 2015 as a means to illuminate processes of resource repurposing, affective labour exchanges, dematerialisation of value, and mutations through transport and logistics. Operating across an intersection of sculptural installation, performance and wearable works, The Facility works from a parasitic framework, implicating other life forms, situations and spaces through processes of chance, accumulation, mutation and entropy.

James Brearley Director of Brearley Architects & Urbanists (BAU) explores the architecture, contemporary life and culture in Shanghai and what this might look like into the future. Presented by Abercrombie & Kent Monday 17 July 2017