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About the project
Six Weeks of Asylum/Six Weeks of Compassion is a collaborative project between three women artists and the local community. It is an arts project created in response to the displacement experienced by asylum seekers(displaced bodies, displaced minds, displaced hearts, displaced lives). Individuals are invited to take part in workshops.
This multimedia project is a message to the asylum seekers detained in centres like Woomera, Maribyrnong, Villawood and others, that we support their attempts to find a safe haven. It is a message to those asylum seekers who now live in the community as refugees that we welcome them and hope that this country will be a happy, prosperous place for them to make a new life for however long they wish to be here.
It also comes from a desire to express our personal thoughts and feelings through art, that we are emotionally connected to and encourage people to act in any way they can to offer warmth and support to the people arriving as asylum seekers on the shores of this large island.
The word "asylum" suggests safety. However, its other connotation is about psychology and mental health. This work examines the psychology of our country at the current time. It is a project that challenges the viewer to come on a journey which will take six weeks, and urges them to keep eyes open for the next message, the next small communication, and the next disturbing expression about what is going on in our country today.
Six Weeks of Asylum/Six Weeks of Compassion consists of six artworks spanning six weeks. Each artwork will be installed temporarily in a different local area within the City of Port Phillip and City of Melbourne. It aims to engage the audience in a dialogue which should throw light on an urgent social justice issue. The works will be developed to express our common humanity as well as having a tight visual presence.
In this project of peace, three women artists have chosen to work collaboratively, using a range of mediums suited to the areas of expertise of each artist involved, Bronwyn Weingott, filmmaker; Jessica Salehian, Landscape Architect; Tamsin Salehian, Visual Artist. Using abstract and poetic imagery the project aims to encourage us all to reflect upon concerns of humanity, justice and individuality.
Six Weeks of Asylum/Six Weeks of Compassion will bring symbolic images of and about the refugee crisis into our own backyard- into those spaces where we work, where we live, and where we leisure. These images should be haunting, somewhat disturbing messages prompting the viewer to think for oneself, to not be lead by the overriding mentality of paranoia and fear, of misleading information. Through the government's determination to oppress the voice of asylum seekers, they refuse to personalise, humanise the issue in case our compassion and empathy may be aroused.
Here in Australia we all have the choice to direct our lives and land towards social responsibility and ethical actions. We all dream of belonging to a country whose values and actions in the world and domestic arena inspire us. The project arises out of this hope.
For more information or to join a workshop email us: art@sparecreative.com
Refuge
n. A sheltered or protected state, safe from threat or harm
Compassion
n. sensitivity to the suffering of others, often including a desire to help.
This
project has been assisted by the City of Port Phillip Cultural
Programs Board through it's
Cultural Development Fund
