Synopsis:

Initiated by T:>Works and funded in part by the public, The AGEncy Fest is an annual showcase of the distinct vitalities and perspectives of 60+ individuals, including artists and cultural workers. Centring the agency to act and make choices as the transformative experience of ageing, the Fest opens in 2026 with Who Knows Where The Bird Goes – Dana Lam: Six Decades of Practice, an exhibition tracing the writer, gender equality advocate, grandmother, and visual artist across a lifetime of making works. Who Knows Where The Bird Goes – Dana Lam: Six Decades of Practice is Dana's first-ever solo exhibition.

Running from 22 July to 8 August, the exhibition brings together key works spanning writing, drawing, animation, and performance alongside newly commissioned pieces, including Dana's first foray into the labour-intensive medium of frame-by-frame animation (Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane?).

Exploring themes of renewal, gender, more-than-human relations, grief, and memory, Dana's work inaugurates The AGEncy Fest, as a fitting demonstration of the indomitable spirit of 60+ individuals.

Dana was part of the core group that reclaimed AWARE in 2009 during the historic AWARE Saga, served two terms as President, and has spent years as a journalist, playwright, performer, and visual artist speaking for the marginalised. Her notable works include her play "Bernard's Story", her art initiative "When Bellies Speak: You are your own work of art", and her publication "The Art of Being a Grandmother: An Incomplete Diary of Becoming".