Pull out your chairs, sit down, exchange pleasantries, pick up your cutlery, and begin eating. Reduced to a series of physical gestures, the act of sharing a meal can appear simple. In the sense that it is easy yes, but also in the sense that it is but a mere routine. Unremarkable and hollow. But to emerging artist Ellamay Khongroj Fitzgerald, it is nothing of the sort.

Largely influenced by her lived experiences as a second generation Asian Australian, Ellamay’s newest exhibition, A Seat At The โต๊ะ, considers how identity and heritage are cultivated through food within the Asian diaspora. The personal narratives of the six Asian Australian exhibition participants, documented through lens-based storytelling and installation, reveal that the food shared during a meal sustains not only the physical body but it’s cultural and ancestral connections as well.

It seems only fitting then that the celebration and support of both Ellamay’s exhibition opening and our local arts community take the form of a shared banquet-style dinner. Take your seat at the table, alongside Ellamay and leading arts figures, on Thursday 25 September in the sAme sAme private dining room for an intimate and immersive dining experience. Hosted in partnership with not-for-profit contemporary arts organisation, Outer Space, this return of Art on James promises to stimulate your mind and body through, creative conversation, visual projection of artworks, and a flavour-packed bespoke banquet menu that draws inspiration from Ellamay’s heritage.

The evening begins with welcome drinks at 6:30PM and is followed by the seated banquet dinner from 7:00PM.

Tickets are $160 per person and include a three-course banquet menu and drinks.