Currently Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, offers a stark movie and still image installation by internationally famous young Afghan artist, Lida Abdu. I quote from her exhibition statement ‘Art is a petition for another world, a momentary shattering of what is comfortable so that we may become more sophisticated in reclaiming the present. The new wandering souls of the globe, stubborn, weak, persecuted, strong, will continue to make this art as long as people believe in easy solutions and banal closures.’ The art I saw was sophisticated yet uplifting, poetic and demanding. Abdu saw her country change through the disaster of war and is capable of seeing regeneration and hope. I admire her for this.
Prof. Maureen Ryan and I are to hold a Dialogue at the Launch about hope and home using the everyday images found in my art. We are speaking similarly about ‘reclaiming the present’ as Abdu – but to an audience even more difficult to impress with the looming social problems of living in the comfortable world of a peaceful Australia.
