In the traumatic and epoch-defining events of the last three years, some of which include raging bushfires and floods, a pandemic, global conflicts, and the recent women-led revolution in Iran, the Melbourne-based Iranian artist Hoda Afshar has explored human folly, cruelty, and frailty, but also bravery, resistance, and endurance.
Works such as Agonistes (2020), which includes video and photographic portraits, highlight human narratives through the testaments of whistleblowers from within Australian security industries, including its offshore detention system, youth detention facilities, intelligence services, and other state agencies.
In doing so, Afshar eulogises their bravery in speaking out, and precisely and poignantly throws a spotlight on the undocumented lives of their charges—refugees, teenage prisoners, and those whose consciences will not allow them to stay quiet.
Another video and photographic series, Remain (2018), also gives voice to the voiceless. The narrative tracks through the 'paradise' of beaches and jungles on Manus Island, where asylum seekers are held in Australian government immigration detention—one of whom is the writer and journalist Behrouz Boochani, who now resides in New Zealand.
Boochani famously penned his autobiographical account No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (2018) via WhatsApp messages, several hundred words at a time, to an editor in Melbourne. The book went on to win the 2019 Victorian Premier's Prize for...
ALOR GAJAH: An army major claimed trial at the Ayer Kerod Sessions Court here today to five charges of submitting false claims involving maintenance work and non-existent raw material supplies wor...