Exhibition: Life, Death and Dying
Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm and Thursdays until 6pm (closed on public holidays)
LIFE, DEATH AND DYING
WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH - FRIDAY 30 APRIL 2021
THE BOB HAWKE PRIME MINISTERIAL CENTRE'S KERRY PACKER CIVIC GALLERY
Opening Hours: Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm (Thursdays until 6pm), Closed Public Holidays
Hawke Building Level 3, UniSA City West campus, 55 North Terrace, Adelaide MAP
Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre
Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, Life, Death and Dying is a ground-breaking contemporary art and film project funded by SA Health and supported by Laurel Palliative Care Foundation. An initiative of artist, Daniel Connell, this exhibition uses art to investigate encounter in the palliative care clinical setting.
In the course of their professional work, artists and clinicians witness some of the most profound expressions of human life. Both professions often find themselves holding the identity and body of another at its most vulnerable and both professions are called on to make sense of these deep human experiences for the wider community.
Through the artwork a conversation about death and end of life care opens up, between 8 individuals, 4 of whom are artists. The artists: Mark Valanzuela, Manal Younus, Elyas Alavi and Claire Wildish met with community participants: Mr Saccoh, Regina, Morwell Atar Morwell, and Rajwant Kaur. Each of the eight have had close professional and personal encounters with death.
They spoke, cried and laughed over two intense days, and then reconnected again after two months, to share artwork made in response to their encounters.
This exhibition will showcase the artefacts and poems created during the year-long project. It sits alongside a major short documentary film made by Director Nick Muecke and Cinematographer Nick Frayne:The Things We Leave Behind.
ARTISTS
MARK VALENZUELA
Mark Valenzuela (Philippines) is an artist who lives in Adelaide and whose work interrogates Filipino and Australian cultural and political systems. Valenzuela employs ceramics, video and painting and drawing techniques to reconfigure diverse historical and contemporary references in multifaceted installations. He often examines cultural narratives and identity, using his work as a vehicle to create alternative mythologies. Mark’s work was part of the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia.
Meet Your Maker: Mark Valenzuela
2020 Adelaide Biennial - Mark Valenzuela
MANAL YOUNUS
Manal Younus is an Australian based freelance storyteller from Eritrea who believes that language and stories are the very fabric of our existence. Using her writing and performance, Manal explores different aspects of life from perseverance, identity, travel and truth. She speaks on a vast number of issues including youth leadership, gender and female empowerment, faith, blackness, culture, language, migration, displacement, racism and inter-culturalism. Manal has featured on ABC's QandA, presented at the Adelaide TEDx, just to name a few favourites.
Manal also facilitates writing, performance, public speaking, youth empowerment and intercultural awareness workshops in schools, community groups and professional environments to encourage others to develop their own voices.
website
How can people of colour best discover themselves?, TEDxAdelaide
Manal Younus -Australian Poetry Slam Finalist 2014
Twitter: @tismanal
ELYAS ALAVI
Elyas Alavi’s practice is interdisciplinary bridging elements from poetry to visual arts, from archive to everyday events with the intention to address issues around displacement, trauma, memory, body and sexual identity. Alavi graduated from a Master of Visual Arts at the University of South Australia in 2016 and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in 2013, and has exhibited at Mohsen Gallery (Tehran), Firstdraft (Sydney), Robert Kananaj (Toronto), IFA (Kabul), Chapter House Lane (Melbourne), UTS gallery (Sydney) as well as Ace Open, Felt Space, Nexus Arts, CACSA Project Space (all Adelaide).
He is the recipient of a 2019 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship and currently studying a Master of Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Arts, University of London. Alongside his visual art practice, he has published three poetry books in Afghanistan and Iran, receiving critical acclaim and a number of literature prizes: International Peace Poetry Prize winner (2011Tajikistan), The Annual Reporters Poetry Prize (2009- Tehran), Young Poet’s Book of the Year (2008-Iran) and Afghan Young poets prize. He regularly runs art and poetry workshops in schools and community centres in Adelaide.
Elyas Alavi website
Elyas Alavi Instagram
Image Credit: Photo by Sam Roberts
CLAIRE WILDISH
Claire Wildish is a Adelaide based artist, designer, illustrator and story maker who uses a lifelong involvement in community arts and significant creative skills to facilitate community projects. Claire coordinated the Minyma Kutjara Art Centre and is currently Artist in Residence at UCity, Adelaide.
PRESENTED BY
THE BOB HAWKE PRIME MINISTERIAL CENTRE
While the views presented by speakers within The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia, or The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, they are presented in the interest of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of: Strengthening our Democracy - Valuing our Diversity - Building our Future.
The copying and reproduction of any transcripts within The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre public program is strictly forbidden without prior arrangements.
While the views presented by speakers within The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia, or The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, they are presented in the interest of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of: Strengthening our Democracy - Valuing our Diversity - Building our Future. The Hawke Centre reserves the right to change their program at any time without notice.
