Pole-Dancing, Electronic Music & Cultural Liberation: Sydney’s ‘CLUB 4A’ Is a Sacred Refuge

CLUB 4A is a place where creative freedom and expression runs rampant. It’s where cutting edge electronic music bounces off the walls, ricocheting through the chest of sweaty-bodied attendees.

An institution already, the Sydney-based CLUB 4A is a home for the Asian-diasporic community. Conquering the pressure of cultural traditions and the passion to pursue a creative path, CLUB 4A implores you to leave all your worries at the door.

Described as “a nexus where diverse artistic expressions of the Asian diaspora flourish”, CLUB 4A provides a cross-cultural dialogue through creative expression and music.

Organised by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art – a Sydney-based coalition of art workers and artists – the direction of the not-for-profit organisation has shifted and changed since its inception.

One thing remains the same: 4A prioritises booking emerging and upcoming artists so it can platform them early on in their careers.

“We’ve been this catalyst for incubating early career artists,” Zev, 4A Centre’s Producer in Public Programming, told VICE.

“We do a lot of varied events and hybrid nights with performance and music. At the core, we just want to support both Asian-Australian voices and global Asian voices.”

Previous events organised by 4A have seen rooms filled up with 750 people – a testament to the fact that there is an audience for these club nights, eager to participate and cherish something that platforms Asian art.

“I remember looking around at the crowd and being like: where are all of these beautiful, cool, trendy Asian-Australians coming from?” he said.

“When these kinds of communities are privileged, it really changes the feeling of the space itself. It’s a lot more supportive, sensitive and wholesome.”

The upcoming CLUB 4A features a lineup of innovative multidisciplinary performers. Club Chrome – a queer POC pole collective – is doing an installation alongside Melbourne artist and designer Henry Lai-Pyne who will be using projection and body motion tracking for their performance. The night will be soundtracked by electronic artists both locally and internationally, including Naarm’s own Teether & Kuya Neil, UK-based DJ SUCHI and Toronto producer-DJ, Ciel.

For Ciel, reclaiming the idea of being “super Chinese” has helped honour her heritage fully in electronic music spaces.

“I think growing up, there was a lot of pressure to assimilate into society… maybe not always taking pride in being super Chinese,” she told VICE.

“But now that I'm older, I don't care as much about what other people think. And I've learned to really embrace every part of my life that makes me who I am.”

Through her work as a producer-DJ, Ciel has discovered that unapologetic authenticity can lead you to connect with an entire community on the other side of the globe.

“I think there’s something almost inexplicable about the music that I make that speaks to people from this part of the world on an almost subconscious level,” she said.

“It's not like I'm sitting there being like “I'm going to make something that sounds really appealing to Asian people”. I think most of the things that I make are just a representation of my life and what makes me, me.”

Looking at the electronic music scene through a critical lens over the years, Ciel has made a conscious effort to use her discipline to reach people beyond the spaces that she is directly part of, especially spaces that acknowledge South Asian communities.

“I think having events like this is just widening the circle. You can't talk about inclusion without exclusion,” she said.

“Representational politics is really the beginning, but in dance music, people think that's the end. And that's a problem. Visibility is not the only thing we want. We want equality in all aspects.”

Pursuing longevity in a music career isn’t “classically expected” for a lot of Asian families.

“You’re expected to be a doctor or an engineer,” according to Zev.

However, CLUB 4A provides an alternative model for being successful and being able to express yourself, even if it means going against the grain.

“You probably do have to have a 'black sheep' moment. Often the artists we work with, they're the one person in the family that's gone down this route,” he said.

“CLUB 4A has less expectation of the formality of contemporary art. I feel really blessed to be able to just find someone and elevate them and give them that place that they might not have elsewhere.

While 4A has been putting in the work to platform Asian artists from all around the world, the journey to growing larger and evolving more as a prominent entity in contemporary art spaces is still a dream worth chasing.

“My big vision is to develop it more into a multi-day festival where there's a lot of performance art inside big galleries like the Art Gallery of New South Wales,” he said.

“I just want to make sure that we can get the funding that places like Vivid get. I'm a big dreamer. Sometimes if you reach for the stars, you'll land somewhere in between there.”

CLUB 4A: Forever After is happening at Manning Bar, Sydney, on Saturday November 11th, and at The Night Cat, Melbourne on Saturday November 18. Tickets for both events can be purchased here.


Adele is the Junior Writer & Producer for VICE AU/NZ. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter here.

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