ARTLAND 2017*

2017

Artland is a group exhibition of site-specific art installations in and around RMIT’s Brunswick campus.

Responding to the theme of the Artland exhibition, Thresholds, I created artworks that not only considered different aspects of the site in which they were exhibited, but also use them to draw people’s attention to Australia’s border policies alongside the plight of refugees and asylum seekers.

In ROAD CLOSED (2017), by using a found broken traffic sign that could symbolise the Australian restrictive refugee policies that prolong the suffering of asylum seekers including those who fled war and persecution. The sign is used for warning people to not enter or cross a point. However, its being broken could suggest its fragility and impermanence.

In my other artwork WELCOME (2017), the considerably large scale of the text as the main element in the design could at first indicate positive views about refugees and asylum seekers, its faded colour and its being confined under the chain-link fence could underline the growth of hatred and fear against minorities.

* Funded by RMIT Link Arts and Culture as part of the Artland project.