BY SUE CAMPBELL-ROBERTS
SYDNEY How do 17 emerging artists respond to the Australian government's treatment of asylum seekers? With an exhibition of powerful new art works focussing on the individual and collective meaning of journey, imprisonment, history and hope.<%0>
Through installation, performance art, painting and sculpture these ordinary Australians expose their feeling for fellow human beings seeking what most of us take for granted a secure life, free of persecution.
The works include Villawood Landscape by Kerry MacAulay, a cage of chain-link mesh filled with discarded clothes. The used clothes symbolise the men, women and children currently detained in the Villawood detention centre.
James Thomas, 22, sees the issue of asylum seekers in terms of class struggle: "My artwork, Playing God, depicts the attitude the Australian government has for the welfare of refugees. It asks the viewer, why must the fate of hundreds of people rely on the decision of a small minority of the ruling class whose prime interest is profit, not people?"
Other artists both Australian-born and those born overseas respond to the media hype and propaganda surrounding asylum seekers as well as to the suffering and dignity of the individuals kept behind bars while awaiting their fate.
Nobody's Somebody's shows how a new generation of Sydney artists has been affected by the most important national issue of the decade.
The exhibition will be opened by Phillip Adams on May 28 at 7.30pm at Cafe Blue, 1st floor, 313 King Street, Newtown. It runs until June 2 and is open from 9am to 9pm daily.
From Green Left Weekly, May 29, 2002.
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