Viv and her collaborators in that project � Wiam, Usama, Lailya and Mohammed � are now joined by City of Yarra residents Shafiqa and Masoud in presenting a much larger Shadowland exhibition at the Gabriel Gallery in the Footscray Community Arts Centre: an exhibition of interwoven photographs and narratives through which Wiam, Usama, Shafiqa, Lailya, Masoud and Mohammed speak of their exile from their home countries, their struggle to find a safe haven in Australia and their hopes for the future. (A detailed history of the whole project, including the touring display Journey to the Sarab, is included in the perpetual calendar mentioned below.)
One of the exhibition participants spoke at the World Refugee Day rally in Melbourne:
(The photo at the top of this page is featured on one of the postcards at the exhibition, and shows Shafiqa re-enacting her attempts to attract attention when the boat carrying her and more than 280 others, began to sink ...)
The launch of the exhibition on 16 September was accompanied by a forum under the titleThis is my Case, with speakers including Julian Burnside, Malcolm Fraser, Tony Birch, Aowham Al Dujayli, with George Lekakis as facilitator. (Nouria Salehi was to have spoken, but was in Afghanistan.) A report on this forum can be found here.
Details of the Shadowland exhibition can be found on the website of the Footscray Community Arts Centre; information can also be obtained from the gallery coordinator - email [email protected]. Viv Mèhes can be contacted on 0408 035 258, or [email protected]. The gallery is at 45 Moreland Street, Footscray, and is open weekdays 9.30am-5pm, 12noon-4pm weekends.
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