TAKEAWAY: TALES FROM THE FLAVOUR SUPERHIGHWAY
Marley Dawson, Keg de Souza, Gianna Christella Hayes, Gillian Kayrooz, Zora Pang, Janhavi Salvi, James Tylor
Curated by Mariam Ella Arcilla and Denise Thwaites
Presented as part of Canberra Art Biennial.
12 September - 24 October 2026
Exhibition Opening: Friday 11 September 2026, 6pm
TAKEAWAY: Tales from the Flavour Superhighwayis an artistic project that invites audiences to engage with the complex and regenerative stories that underpin eating, cultivating, and distributing food. TAKEAWAY explores ecological networks, food sovereignty, and decolonial cultural practices through the works of seven artists: Marley Dawson, Keg de Souza, Gianna Christella Hayes, Gillian Kayrooz, Zora Pang, Janhavi Salvi, and James Tylor.
Curated by Mariam Ella Arcilla and Denise Thwaites, TAKEAWAY is a year-long project that consists of a group exhibition, knowledge-trading sessions, talks, food demos, and tours across Ngunnawal and Ngambri/Canberra and Gadigal/Sydney. Through these activities, we position food through social, historical, and cultural systems and how they shape takeaway practices, migration, labour, nourishment, and waste economies.
The TAKEAWAY exhibition takes place at Canberra Contemporary from 12 September - 24 October 2026 and is presented as part of Canberra Art Biennial 2026. Included in the show is a reading section curated by Magenta House that is inspired by the themes explored by project participants.
TAKEAWAY: Flavour Freeway is a public program that will be held on 26 September and 17 October featuring culinary teachers, writers, artists, and food producers. The roving program explores agricultural and hospitality practices, gastropoetics and diaspora food cultures through the voices of Irfan Masters, Racha Syrian Kitchen, Richie Allan, Lauren Carrol Harris, and Yleia Marano, alongside TAKEAWAY curators and artists. This is a ticketed event.
The TAKEAWAY project kicked off in early 2026 with TAKEAWAY Art Kitchen: a knowledge-sharing program for emerging artists organised in partnership with Magenta House and Tributary Projects. Held in summer on Gadigal and winter on Ngunnawal/Ngambri lands, the sessions invited food producers, writers, and artists to explore takeaway methods, regenerative farming, ancestral recipes, and food marketing. Hands-on activities were facilitated by Xinyi Lim, Lauren Carroll Harris & Sam Vincent (Gollion Farm), Soph Mico (Tenderground), Gianna Christella Hayes, and Mariam Ella Arcilla, with contributions from Bethaney Turner and Ro McFarlane (University of Canberra). To close out the project, novelist and poet Merlinda Bobis will present a newly-commissioned piece later this year.
Ultimately, TAKEAWAY explores the shared learnings that we take away with us as we digest our evolving relationship with food and community-making.
Image: Gillian Kayrooz, From The Palm Of, 2024, Two-Channel video, 1080p, 1 hour 27 minutes, still. Image courtesy the artist.
This project has received funding support from Creative Australia and the University of Canberra and is presented in partnership with Canberra Art Biennial and Magenta House.
