In response to this year’s theme for International Women’s Day, Inspiring Inclusion, five Meanjin (Brisbane) artists with strong connections to linguistically diverse communities have explored their agency within contemporary Australian society.
Bengali Australian multidisciplinary Artist Natasha Narain said, “I do believe in finding answers instead of staying in the space of victimhood.”
Narain’s contribution to Her Work at Woolloongabba Art Gallery, is And after a cuppa, she Rose; the title refers to a phrase she heard whilst growing up as a member of an Indian defense force family.
She draws on the visual rhetoric of Kantha quilts to create a “psychological landscape” that is a “mediation between… personal and cultural memories”; it also celebrates the “restorative quality of a cuppa”.
The artist sees herself like an ambassador for the “hand embroidery tradition” of her “maternal ancestors”.
She “deploy[s]” these aesthetics and techniques “to create a range of marks”, that intersect between, “…the emotional, botanical [and] anatomical,” to facilitate “…releasing, connecting, and ultimately healing.”
Whilst Narain shares her process as a pathway to personal growth, her fellow exhibitor, Pamela See (Xue Mei-Ling), has chosen to honour a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) nurse.
Phyllis Anguey “ferried” RAAF personal between “Brisbane and the UK” in the
mid-1940s; after World War II, she became a midwife.
See engages a combination of papercutting techniques, from European style silhouette to Foshan jianzhi.
She developed her skills in portraiture through the guidance of curators from both the Museum of Chinese History in Melbourne and the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
The craft specialist said, “Over the past few years the idea that China poses a military threat to our country has been proliferated in the mainstream media.”
“People seem to forget that, despite the White Australia Policy, Chinese Australians served for our country.”
“I wanted to challenge this conception by profiling the contribution of this amazing woman,” said See.
The other artists contributing to the exhibition are Melina Celik, Sara Nejad and Jeanette Stok.
Whether seeking an avenue to gain agency or hoping to celebrate the accomplishments of women, Her Work may present an opportunity to contemplate our changing cultural landscape this International Women’s Day.
Image: Sara Nejad. Untitled 3 from Recurrence and Emergence Series. 2nd Edition. (2023-4) Gouache
and archival inkjet print on cotton rag paper. 1000 x 1000mm
