Tasting Justice: Cooking the Coda & 4A Talks

This event was a celebration of  the launch of Tastes of Justice: The Aesthetics and Politics of Food Art Practices in Asia and Australia in Sydney on 14 February 2026. Hosted at Magenta House by co-Editors Francis Maravillas, Marnie Badham, Stephen Loo and Madeleine Collie.  We were thrilled to host the Singapore Fried Rice edition of Nasi Goreng Diplomacy, hosted by Chu Hao Pei (Singapore), which explored the politics of rice and diaspora through the shared experience of cooking and eating fried rice. Chu Hao Pei travelled with his family to Sydney and through a dialogue held while cooking with his father, who was briefly a chef in Hong Kong, the pair examined “Singapore Fried Rice.” This is a dish found only outside of Singapore and likely to have evolved from the spicy, Hong Kong-invented, “Singapore noodles.”  Through conversations in Cantonese, the presentation reflected on generational relationships, migration, national identity and culinary difference. Tracing the origins of the dish through the Hong Kong diaspora the artist and his dad considered processes of cultural translation, slippage and change. 

This was followed by Tasting Justice: Cooking the CODA, an informal book launch featuring some of the fourteen authors and artists in Tastes of Justice, bringing together snacks, tastes and readings from across the region in an act of commensality; activating themes, concepts and food from their contributions in the publication.

All of the people that attended took home a zine version of Banana’s: A Wild Story a new performance lecture developed by Keg de Souza and presented at Tasting Justice, Singapore, a series of performance activations in celebration of the book which was held at LASALLE College of the Arts in October 2025.

4A Talks: Chu Hao Pei & Keg de Souza 

Asking how everyday staples like rice, bananas, and medicinal plants can unravel complex migratory and colonial histories, transcultural languages, and political strategies, this 4A Talks episode, features artists Keg de Souza and Chu Hao Pei in-conversation with Mariam Ella Arcilla. The conversation explores eating practices and the transformative act of cooking, harvesting, archiving, and sharing food. Drawing on the artists’ respective works presented during the Tastes of Justice program along with their wider practices the conversation examined how recipes, ingredients and culinary traditions can become tools for artistic research and political storytelling.

Listen on the 4A Talks website here

Recorded on 16 February 2026 at Magenta House on Gadigal land, this episode was commissioned by the Tastes of Justice Curatorial Collective, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, and the Food Art Research Network; in partnership with Magenta House, UNSW, LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore, RMIT University and CAST research group.

The episode is shared across the Food Art Research Network, Magenta House and 4A platforms, extending the dialogue to wider international audiences.

Tasting Justice is a curartorial programme that accompanies the launch of the publication Tastes of Justice: The Aesthetics and Politics of Food-art Practices in Asia and Australia. It has involved two day event of food, art and politics held at LASALLE College of the Arts and an event at Magenta House in Sydney.  These connected events and exchanges  have been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and by the McNally School of Fine Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore, in collaboration with the CAST research group at RMIT University, Art & Design UNSW, Food Art Research Network, Magenta House and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.