Shadowland at Gabriel Gallery: 16 September�10 October 2004

shafiqa re-enacting her rescue

Last November we posted details of a photographic exhibition by Viv Mèhes at the Highpoint shopping centre as part of the Big West festival. Huge silk portrait banners were hung over shoppers, while the stories of refugees were told in photos, words and song:

Shadowland banners at Highpoint

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:

addressing WRD rally
� here is part of what she said, as quoted in the richly illustrated perpetual calendar which is on offer along with postcards based on the photos from the exhibition (not to mention the photos, banners and more ...) Even though I feel a bit nervous, I'm glad to be here to talk to this big number of Australians, to have this opportunity to thank you for your warmth and kindness and to tell you that we didn't come here to harm you, we didn't come here to steal your jobs, we are here because we found ourselves in a dark closed tunnel and we had to dig our exit with our own hands to stay alive, not just for ourselves but for our children's safety and future.

(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 title“This 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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