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

2026 marks the ninth year since the establishment of Asian Art Research Now, the annual postgraduate symposium organised by the Australasian Network for Asian Art (AN4AA).

The 2026 symposium thematically explores the afterlives of Asian art—when artworks, objects, and creative practices persist, circulate, and acquire new meanings beyond their original contexts. By examining these afterlives, we can better understand not only what survives, but how and why it endures. This perspective highlights the influence of archives, museums, historians, and contemporary practitioners in shaping present-day understandings of Asian art. Yet, while these institutions can generate new meanings, they risk reductionist interpretations, particularly in the context of post-colonial legacies that reflect or reinforce power dynamics, privileging certain narratives while marginalising others. Thus, this symposium also invites critical inquiry into the roles and practices of these institutions.

The symposium will take place in a hybrid format, with in-person hubs in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand hosted at the South Australian Museum (Adelaide), RMIT (Melbourne), University of New South Wales (Sydney) and the first-time hub at the University of Wellington in Aotearoa New Zealand. The day-long 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 Chris Parkinson

Chris Parkinson is a multi-disciplined artist engaging practice, research and programming across academia, the public sector, independent consulting and publishing. His research focuses on the production of public, urban space through collaborative and collective art practices, urban surface studies, informal economies and the governance of criminalised practices. Parkinson’s collaborative practices have been shaped through art collectivism and sustain a strong connection to the Southeast Asian region. His 2010 book, Peace of Wall: Street Art from East Timor, is described as a ‘book of evocative photojournalism capturing an important moment in East Timor’s history through its walls.’

His PhD (2025) studied the Indonesian Art Collective SURVIVE! Garage through practice-led research, linking a global history of art collectives to Indonesian creative practices through the sociological framework of Henri Lefebvre. It found new modes of engaging rhythm as theoretical analysis and creative methodology in a cross-cultural artistic context. Working primarily through lens-based processes and practices, Parkinson retains his roots to graffiti through subverting contemporary letters through concepts indebted to seriality and abstraction, rhythm and affect, text and subtext.

IN-PERSON VENUES (please confirm whether you plan to attend at one of these venues on checkout and please arrive at 8:45am for a 9:00am start)

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

Melbourne: Asia Society, Level 2, Building 8, RMIT University, 368-374 Swanston St, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Sydney: A101 (A Block), UNSW Art & Design, Oxford St & Greens Rd, Paddington NSW 2021

Wellington: Room WIG 202, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 139 Vivian Street, Te Aro, Wellington

PROGRAM (all times in AEST and NZST)

Time (AEST)	Time (NZST)	Session
9:00-9:15	11:00-11:15	Opening Remarks
9:15-10:30	11:15-12:30	Panel 1: Institutional Afterlives Soh Kay Min, "Citational Crosswinds: Elemental Historiographies from the Afterlives of Artists' Archives" Leo Bagus, "Expanded Batik: Judith Butler's Performativity and the Subversion of Indonesian Batik" Debbi Min, "Easing Her Heartache Through Painting: The Materials and Techniques of I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih (1966-2006)"
10:30-11:00	12:30-13:00	Lunch Break (aligned to NZST)
11:00-12:15	13:00-14:15	Keynote Address
12:15-12:45	14:15-14:45	Lunch Break (aligned to AEST)
12:45-14:00	14:45-16:00	Panel 2: Colonial Afterlives Eldrick Yuji Raphael S. Los Baños: "'Anachronistic by Intention': Cian Dayrit’s Appropriations of Dean Worcester’s Photographs, 2019–2021" Minying Zhang, "Reawakening the Silk Road: Digital Afterlives of Asian Material Culture at Macau's Poly MGM Museum" Ar-Em Bañas: "On the Bones of BATALA: Exploring the Colonization of the Tagalog Region through Tabletop Role-playing Game Design"
14:00-14:10	16:00-16:10	Break
14:10-15:50	16:10-17:50	Panel 3: Material Afterlives Arif Firqan, "The Afterlives of New Order Artefacts: Family Photographs, Monuments, and the Remembering of the New Order Indonesia (1966–1998)" Danni Lin, "After the Fire: The Afterlife of the 1893 Donation Plaque Sheng Bao Yang Wei at Melbourne’s See Yup Temple" Qianyao Wang: "From Environment to Everyday Life: Recontextualising Zhu Legeng’s Ceramics"
15:50-15:55	17:50-17:55	Concluding Remarks

Image: Ho Tzu Nyen, Hotel Aporia (2019), installation view, Aichi Triennale 2019, Nagoya and Toyota City, Japan, 1 August–14 October 2019. Site-specific installation at the Kiraku-Tei, Toyota City. Photograph: Takeshi Hirabayashi. Courtesy Ho Tzu Nyen and Kiang Malingue.

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.

Contact the host of AN4AA Postgraduate Symposium 2026 | Asian Art Research Now