ACCA Podcast · ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art)

Artist Talk: with Tina Stefanou

·50 min·3 clips

Matthew says he has not seen “the light of day for 14 years” because he is blind.

The talk opens in ACCA's rhythm. Elise Goldfinch names herself as curator of You Can't See Speed, then acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people, neighbouring peoples, ancestors, elders, and the continuing care of country. The opening does real work. It keeps Tina Stefanou's project tied to unceded lands, named countries, and First Peoples' cultural practice before anyone treats the art as floating free of place. The room stays in the tape too: apologies over pronunciation, gallery references, small corrections, and the courtesy of people working things out aloud. Then the scale drops to the body. A speaker talks about wanting to ride a bike after losing sight, and the wish comes before any clean confidence. He does not make blindness neat or sentimental. He says he has not seen the light of day for fourteen years, then explains how people still assume he can see a little. The pull is physical: adrenaline, childhood want, family caution, and the hunt for a chance to get on the bike. Wayne is the practical hinge. Through a headset, he turns left, right, straight, and encouragement into the language that gets the rider over the jump. Once the speaker clears it ten times, he walks over to measure it and can barely believe what he crossed. Gratitude keeps coming back. The feat belongs to the people who believed, joined in, and stayed with the uncertainty. The closing keeps that room alive, with questions about free expression and economies beside Matthew's thanks to Tina and the team, then applause.

As heard by us

A podcast conversation that moves from land, to access, to the practical work of making space.

The ACCA podcast opens with a formal welcome and then settles into a discussion of access, perseverance, and the conditions that make art and movement possible.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a reflective ACCA podcast centered on Tina Stefano, with curator Elise Goldfinch guiding the conversation.

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