Past exhibitions -- 2004

Isle of Refuge

Monash University Museum of Art
Exhibition dates: 14 July - 21 August 2004
Opening: Saturday 17 July 3.15 - 5pm
Floortalk: Saturday 17 July 2.30 - 3.15

Monash University Museum of Art presents Isle of Refuge, an exhibition curated by Ashley Carruthers, Rilka Oakley and My Le Thi. Featuring the work of Gordon Bennett, George Gittoes, Tim Johnson and Karma Phuntsok, Chris O'Doherty a.k.a Reg Mombassa, Sue Saxon and Anne Zahalka, Laurens Tan, My Le Thi, Albertina Viegas, Savanhdary Vongpoothorn, Guan Wei, Mahmoud Yekta.

Tim Johnson and Karma Phuntsok Refuge painting 2003 (detail) Courtesy of the artists and Mori Gallery, Sydney

The exhibition brings together a group of prominent Australian visual artists who, through their personal histories, ethics and politics, have a special sense of solidarity with refugees in detention in Australia and in Australian camps in the South Pacific.

This group includes artists who came to Australia as refugees, those who are children of refugees, émigrés and migrants, and a number of artists, both professional and non-professional who are, or have been, detained in Villawood Detention Centre.

Rather than attempting to define a universal refugee experience, the curators of Isle of Refuge have set out to explore the multifarious ways in which the refugee and émigré artists have made themselves 'at home' in Australia.

Isle of Refuge explores issues of nationalism, migration, hybridity and interculturality, as well as the representation of 'otherness' in relation to ideas of multiculturalism. The participating artists explore Australia as a place from which to actively question the official constructions of national identity, culture and history, in both host- and home-lands; as well as related issues of social exclusion, status and identity, safety and legitimacy.

Following a floortalk by participating artists and curators, the exhibition will be opened by prominent lawyer and refugee rights advocate Julian Burnside QC.

Isle of Refuge is toured by Ivan Dougherty Gallery, UNSW College of Fine Art