Northside
Three Art Exhibitions at Counihan Gallery
Thursday 28 April - SATURDAY 7 May
COUNIHAN GALLERY
Event Location: Counihan Gallery; 233 Sydney Rd, Brunswick VIC 3056
Cost: Free
HRAFF is partnering with the Counihan Gallery again in 2022 to showcase three exhibitions:
Yeki Bood, Yeki Nabood
The Sky After Rain
William Kelly: Toward the Big Picture
We invite our audiences to spend some time with the works and reflect on the 2022 festival themes, Bodies, Environment Ancestors, Distance.
Image: Hootan Heydari. Nostograph 1, 2021. C-Type print and gold leaf. Courtesy the artist
Yeki Bood, Yeki Nabood
'Yeki Bood, Yeki Nabood' means 'one was there, one was absent’ in Farsi. It’s a phrase used to begin a story, similar to ‘once upon a time’.
This solo exhibition by Hootan Heydari explores the compulsion to return to the past. Returning to the past can be an act of resistance against historical erasure and a mode of cultural preservation.
Born in Tehran, Heydari and his family left Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Evoking Iran in 1979, Yeki Bood, Yeki Nabood includes reproductions of family photographs, images of the Islamic revolution and symbolic materials such as plaster (healing), pistachios (the social act of passing time together) and gold (both consumerism and inequity).
William Kelly: Towards the Big Picture
William Kelly’s work explores issues of human rights, social justice, violence against women and children, and peace. The exhibition includes works such as 'The Prison of History or the Poetry of Possibilities', which was the precursor to the monumental work that features in the film ‘Can Art Stop a Bullet? William Kelly’s Big Picture’.
From intimate to wall-sized works, this exhibition reflects Kelly’s commitment to drawing and his political concerns over the past four decades.
Image: William Kelly. Love Song for the Millennium, 1997-1999. Charcoal, pastel, watercolour, and pencil on paper. 30 x 61 cm. Courtesy the artist
Image: Blame the Shadows Collective. The Sky After Rain, 2020. Video still. Photographer: Pippa Samaya
The Sky After Rain
Blame the Shadows Collective is made of interdisciplinary artists from across the globe. By collaborating with each other, they tell captivating stories about raw human experiences. As part of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival 2022, Blame the Shadows Collective will present ‘The Sky After Rain’ at the Counihan Gallery.
‘The Sky After Rain’ shares the stories of three queer members of the Iranian diaspora: Payam, Shyla, and Shaya. Their stories are told through a combination of interviews, spoken word poetry, moving images, sound design and dance. The work is brought together by choreographer and dancer Tara Jada Samaya, whose body acts as a medium for queer voices and bodies.
‘The Sky After Rain’ explores overarching themes of identity, gender, family, forgiveness, resilience, hope, love and loss.
The Sky After Rain is proudly supported by Australia Council for the Arts, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Manningham Council’s Community Grant Program, and Access Health and Community.