Escaping the reality of war and enduring its trauma – caught between the war of indifference and empathy – the story of refugees are often forgotten or made invisible. This narrative void presents a challenge to refugees attempting to settle and flourish. Archaeology of Memory is an exhibition that attempts to fill this narrative void by telling the stories of refugees and asylum seekers, suspended between conflict and political rhetoric.
Sha Sarwari is a multidisciplinary, Afghanistan-born visual artist who has lived in Australia since 2000. His work combines material investigation and form, in which he embeds multiple layers of meaning with the intent to create visually poetic encounters. His work speaks of his lived experience of existing between two worlds, longing and belonging, and references current political discourse around migration, identity, place, memory, and nationhood.
In his recent works, Sarwari draws from the visual aesthetic of the Farsi script Nastaleeq, one of the main calligraphic hands used in writing the Farsi alphabets.
