The Tastes of Justice publication launch was hosted at Magenta House in Sydney, featuring new work by Chu Hao Pei. His project Singapore Fried Rice, the fourth iteration of Nasi Goreng Diplomacy, was presented alongside a takeaway zine, Bananas: A Wild Story, produced for the occasion by Keg de Souza.
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
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.
How can everyday staples like rice, bananas, and medicinal plants unravel complex migratory and colonial histories, transcultural languages, and political strategies? In this 4A Talks episode, artists Keg de Souza and Chu Hao Pei are in-conversation with Mariam Ella Arcilla about eating practices and the transformative act of cooking, harvesting, archiving, and sharing food. Timed to coincide with the release of the publication Tastes of Justice: The Aesthetics and Politics of Food Art Practices in Asia and Australia (2026), this interview explores four seminal works: Keg’s artistic publications If a coconut falls (2024) and Bananas: A Wild Story (2026) and Hao Pei’s multimedia project Nasi Goreng Diplomacy (2023-present) and Seeding Sovereignty (2022).
Listen to the podcast ep here
Access the transcript here
Episode Resources
Bios 🐣
Keg de Souza is an artist of Goan ancestry who lives on unceded Gadigal land in Sydney. Architecturally trained, she creates social and spatial environments, making reference to her lived experiences of squatting and organising with projects that use plant and food politics, temporary architecture, publishing and radical pedagogy. De Souza also draws from personal experiences of colonialism to inform her layered projects that centre voices that are often marginalised, for learning about Place. Themes of displacement – through lenses such as colonialism and gentrification – filter through her work, sharing (often lesser-known) stories of plants, people and Place. Exhibitions and projects include: Growth in the Shadows (2025) commissioned for Bundanon Art Museum; If a coconut falls (2024), Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, India; Shipping Roots (2023), Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; Nganga toornung-nge dharraga Bunjil (2022), Abbotsford Convent co-commissioned with ACCA, Melbourne; Convivial City (2019), Open Plan Commission, South London Gallery; Common Knowledge and Learning Curves (2019), Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane and (2018) Artspace, Sydney; The National: New Australian Art, (2017) AGNSW; 20th Biennale of Sydney and Setouchi Triennale (2016), Japan; Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: Vancouver and Preservation (2015) as part of a multi-year project with Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Temporality in Architecture, Food and Communities (2014), Delfina Foundation, London; Temporary Spaces, Edible Places: Isle of Skye (2014), Atlas Arts and If There’s Something Strange In Your Neighbourhood (2013), Ratmakan Kampung, Yogyakarta; 5th Auckland Triennial, 15th Jakarta Biennale and Vertical Villages (with ruangrupa) at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney. Keg is a trained bookbinder and is represented by Booklyn Artist Alliance, NY for her artist’s books and zines which she has been publishing for over 20 years; has a Certificate in Botanical Illustration from The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh; has a PhD, through the Wominjeka Djeembana Research Lab, MADA, Monash University titled: Relationality in Place: Radical Pedagogy and Decolonial Space; was the 2022 Parramatta Artists Studios Creative Fellow; received the 2024 Dahl Fellowship from Eucalypt Australia and is the Printer-in-Residence at the Fisher Library and the 2024 Gilbert Fellow, both Sydney University. Keg is a part of the Food Art Research Network, an international network of established artists and researchers that engage with the politics and aesthetics of food and was a founding member of SquatSpace an artist collective exploring the poetics and politics of space.
Chu Hao Pei is a visual artist whose practice explores the shifting physical, sociological and emotional connections with our natural and urban landscapes. His works shed light on the overlooked and accidental by interweaving the processes of engagement, documentation and research to examine the complexities of environmental and cultural loss (or resurgence) shaped by political, economic and social factors. Hao Pei uses certain methods of documentation and representation to reveal aspects of his subject, while also both concealing and drawing attention to what cannot yet be communicated or understood. Through his practice, Hao Pei explores rice in the context of our region – how it is produced, circulated, and its significance to various communities. This interest has manifested in multiple works over the years. Since 2022, Hao Pei has been developing Nasi Goreng Diplomacy, an artistic-research project and series delving into the complex political and cultural relations of rice. With Nasi Goreng Diplomacy, Hao Pei moves beyond thinking of rice as an agricultural product towards considering how the simple act of cooking or consuming rice can function as shorthand for larger geopolitical relationships. By using nasi goreng as a medium for conversation, Hao Pei explores citizen diplomacy, engaging with various communities in Southeast Asia. His works have been exhibited at Singapore Biennale, The Private Museum (both 2025), Asia Art Biennale (2024), Serendipity Arts Festival 2023, Singapore Art Museum (2025, 2022), Esplanade, Singapore (2022) Taipei Fine Art Museum (2021), Cemeti Institute for Art & Society, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2019), Sa Sa Art Projects, Cambodia (2017 & 2019) and The Substation Gallery, Singapore (2016 & 2021). He was selected for the inaugural National Arts Council Singapore-Cemeti Institute for Art and Society Residency in 2019 and was nominated for the pilot programme of Community & Education Artist residency at Singapore Art Museum in 2021. He was the recipient for The Robert Ho H. N. Foundation Art & the Environment Award Grant in 2021.
Tastes of Justice: The Aesthetics and Politics of Food Art Practices in Asia and Australia in Sydney is co-edited by Francis Maravillas, Marnie Badham, Stephen Loo and Madeline Collie. Published by Routledge (2026), the book reveals the diversity of creative and cultural practices in contemporary food art and performances in and between Asia and Australia. It examines the ways in which these engender new frameworks for understanding the sensuous, affective, social and material dimensions of the alimentary in art.
The Food Art Research Network (FAR) is a constellation of established artists and cultural workers engaging with the politics and aesthetics of food. It is a network of living relations that nurtures peer learning, exchanges, and encounters in and beyond the field of art. FAR is committed to slow cultural work. We are attentive to the metabolic connections across diverse contexts, acknowledging that the relation to food, land, and waterways is allied with practices of culture. As the network maps and unmaps shared interests, we want to create ways to understand and share these connections without collapsing the differences and struggles that also exist. Since the networks inception in 2020, we have facilitated several annual meetings, collaboratively produced events and encouraged trans-local collaboration.
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (4A) is an independent not-for-profit organisation based in Sydney, Australia. Since 1996, 4A has fostered excellence and innovation in contemporary culture through the commissioning, presentation, documentation and research of contemporary art. Our program is presented throughout Australia and Asia, where we ensure that contemporary art plays a central role in understanding and developing the dynamic relationship between Australia and the wider Asian region.
Monday 16 February 2026
