In Destiny Disrupted, eleven Australian-based artists foreground the power of storytelling to convey personal histories and explore social, ethnic, spiritual, and political contexts. Highly evocative paintings, sculptures, photography, poetry and video installations allow artists to open compelling new narratives for our future.
Dynamic voices in Australian art and literature offer urgent and poetic reflections on personal and familial histories impacted by war and ideological difference: Abdul Abdullah (NSW), Abdul-Rahman Abdullah (WA), Hoda Afshar (VIC), Safdar Ahmed (NSW), Elyas Alavi (SA), Phillip George (NSW), Khaled Sabsabi (NSW), Omar J Sakr (NSW), Shireen Taweel (NSW), Hossein and Nassiem Valamanesh (SA/VIC).
GUAM Director Angela Goddard says: “The curator invites us to consider the concept of the artist as witness, agitator, and social agent which is recurrent across Destiny Disrupted, a theme incredibly relevant to our understanding of international turmoils today.”
Guest curator, Melbourne-based scholar Nur Shkembi, explains: “Artists today are demonstrating how their works can reframe our knowledge and understanding of geopolitical events and include naunced references to various sources of knowledge.” “Destiny Disrupted artists inspire us with alternate ways in which to understand the present.”
The exhibition opens on Thursday 15 December 2022 with an in-gallery Curator’s Tour with Nur Shkembi, welcoming press and the public, located on the Griffith University South Bank campus.
Free public programs, including Life Drawing Classes and issues-based artist discussions will be delivered throughout Destiny Disrupted’s duration.
Destiny Disrupted is a Granville Centre Art Gallery Touring Exhibition.
Image: Elyas Alavi, Doesn’t it taste of blood? 2020 (installation view Granville Centre Art Gallery, 2022).Neon sign, 85 x 25 x 5cm. Courtesy the artist
