This talk will be held both online and in four "hub" locations in Adelaide, Auckland, Melbourne, and Sydney (details below)

2025 marks the eighth year since the establishment of Asian Art Research Now, the annual postgraduate symposium organised by the Australasian Network for Asian Art (AN4AA). Over the years, this symposium has become a flagship event for the network, bringing together early-career Asian art researchers from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to share their research-in-progress with their peers and experts in the field.

Building on last year’s symposium – which encouragingly received an ever-growing-number of presentations and audiences, and was structured around four thematic panels – this year’s symposium adopts a broad thematic focus: Re-(en)visioning the Past and Present of Asian Art. To re-(en)vision suggests an act of looking back, holding the desired promise of restoration, reclamation, and resignification by bringing to light histories once obscured, misread, or confined within prescriptive frameworks. This process unfolds organically in both art research and artistic practice today, transforming the past and, at times, re-(en)visioning what can be remembered and imagined for the future – whether in nascent or altered forms.

This year, the day-long symposium will again be presented in hybrid format, with venues in Adelaide, Auckland, Sydney, and Melbourne as well as online. The symposium aims to highlight and share the vitality and diversity of Asian art research undertaken by current and recent postgraduate students. It aims to foster supportive critique, feedback, and conversations across institutions and across the diverse geographies and temporalities of Asian art research.

Keynote Speaker: Dr Grace Gassin Lîm Sò͘-chin 林素真

Grace is Curator Asian New Zealand Histories at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the former President of Dragon Tails Association, which was set up to promote research into the histories and heritage of Chinese people (and their descendants and associates) in Australasia. Her wide-ranging interests encompass the historical and contemporary experiences of Asian diaspora communities in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. She co-convened both the Dragon Tails 2017 conference, held at the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, Victoria, and the 2019 conference, held at the Victoria University of Wellington – the latter was the first, and remains the only, Dragon Tails conference ever held in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Over the past decade, Grace has led or been involved in several major collaborative initiatives combining the diverse strengths and aims of curators, historical researchers, activists, and artists in various ways. These projects include: Chinese Languages in Aotearoa, the Asian Mental Health project, The Pandemic Chronicles, and the We Are Kiwi Hong Kongers protest collection. She is also the editor of the forthcoming, multi-authored book, Between Dreams: Resistance and Representation in Asian Aotearoa (Te Papa Press, 2026).

IN-PERSON VENUES (please confirm whether you plan to attend at one of these venues on checkout)

Adelaide: Collab, Police Barracks Building Level 1, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000

Auckland: B201 Faculty of Arts and Education, The University of Auckland, 10 Symonds Street, Auckland Central, Aotearoa New Zealand 1010

Melbourne: The Garden Building 010.06.089, RMIT University, Bowen Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000

Sydney: F202, F Block, UNSW Art & Design, Oxford St & Greens Rd, Paddington NSW 2021

PROGRAM (all times in AEDT)

9:00-9:10 am	Opening Remarks
9:10-10:25 am	Panel 1: Re-configuring Identity and Narratives Maryam Attarbashi, "Unveiled" Jiugeng Niu, "Drowning in a Vanished Yesterday: Nostalgia, Identity, and Cultural Resistance in Post-Pahlavi Iranian Art" Mita Chowdhury, "From the River Delta"
10:25-10:35 am	Break
10:35-11:50 am	Panel 2: Re-constructing Memory: Archive as Method Phuong Nguyen Le, "Giao Điểm: To Be Nearby My Father’s War" Shinjita Roy, "(Re)Dancing Cultural Heritage: Duets Between Body and Site in Virtual Space" Petrus Christologus Susanto Sidhi Vhisatya, "We Work With and As an Archive: Representing Trans and Queer Aesthetic in Art Through Everyday Archival Materials"
11:50am-12:50 pm	Lunch Break
12:50-2:00 pm	Keynote: Dr Grace Gassin Lîm Sò͘-chin 林素真, Curator Asian New Zealand Histories, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
2:00-2:10 pm	Break
2:10-3:25 pm	Panel 3: Re-signifying Voices from the Periphery Zining Ke, "Voices of the Subaltern: Knowledge Production, Visibility, and Resistance in Okkoota, Odalala, and Nireekshane" Ye Liu, "From Ritual to Relational: Re-envisioning Collective Memory and Collaboration in Chinese Rural Art Projects" Riyadhus Shalihin, "Power to Powder"
3:25-3:35 pm	Break
3:35-4:50 pm	Panel 4: Re-visioning Historical Canon and Cross-Cultural Exchange Anna Stewart-Yates, "Uncovering the Secret Lives of Korean 'Mingei' Objects" Alexander Leslie Sutherland, "Changing Perspectives in East Asian Art: The Curious Case of the Mongol 'Nestorian Crosses'" Audrey Newton, "The Transmission was Clear: Recognising the Global Influence of Asian Art"
4:50-5:00 pm	Concluding Remarks

Image: Virtually Harir Choreography, Shinjita Roy, 2022. Screen capture of virtual performance.

The Australasian Network for Asian Art (an4aa) is a group of researchers including academics and curators from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand working in the field of Asian art and visual culture. The Network and its affiliated listserv serve as a platform to share research, promote events and exhibitions, foster a scholarly community, cultivate interest, and act as a vehicle for advocacy.