In the Shade of the Waq Waq Tree has been nominated for the inaugural PARAMOR PRIZE: ART + INNOVATION 2015 at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. The PARAMOR PRIZE: ART + INNOVATION encourages new ways of seeing, experiencing and interpreting the world around us. The prize was launched in memory of one of Australia’s most celebrated female modern artists, Wendy Paramor. Her artistic practice was innovative and forward thinking and as local Liverpool resident, Paramor exemplified the artistic creativity of the Liverpool region.
In the Shade of the Waq Waq Tree is a modular collaborative drawing produce by the collective Undrawing the Line. The drawing was first produced for an exhibition on Utopia at The Secession, Vienna. Undrawing the Line was formed by four people who come from refugees and non-refugee backgrounds – Mona Moradveisi, Safdar Ahmed, Zanny Begg and Murtaza Ali Jafari – to challenge the binary between citizen and non-citizen that frames current thinking about borders. Using borderlessness as method Undrawing the Line began working on an oversized drawing of the Waq Waq Tree in anaglyph 3D. To affect a physical breach of “the binary” viewers needed to wear 3D glasses, which disrupt signals between the left and right eyes, providing glimpses a borderless future animated along the Z axis.
In the Shade of the Waq Waq Tree was produced through workshops with refugees in detention (Villawood Detention Centre and in community detention). Lead artists are Safdar Ahmed, Zanny Begg, Mona Moradveisi and Murtaza Ali Jafari with contributions from Bashir Ahmed, Mansoora Gulzari, Parastoo Bahrami, Neda Bahrami, Mohammad, Madina Sayer, Farnaz Yegan, Kamaleshwaran Selladurai, Susie Egg, Daminda Ehsan and Tabarak (some names have been changed to protect the security of participants). Undrawing the Line was formed in October 2014 and In The Shade of the Waq Waq Tree is its first project.
PARAMOR PRIZE: ART + INNOVATION OPENING NIGHT 31 January, 2015, 6.30pm (By invitation only)
EXHIBITION DATES 31 January – 15 March, 2015
Shortlisted artists are:
Marian Abboud
Tim Andrew
Clark Beumont
Damien Butler
Penelope Cain
Carla Cecson
Simon Alexander Cook and Geoff Sellman
Gary Deirmendjian
James Dodd
Jacquelene Drinkall
Kath Fries
Sarah Goffman
Tim Gregory
Freya Jobbins
Yvette Hamilton
Joanne Handley
Ash Keating
Karena Keys
Rosalind Lemoh
Owen Leong
Leon Lester
Liana Lewis
Lorraine Maggs
Megan McPherson
Louise Paramor
Katy B Plummer
The Polka Dot Sisters (Sally Atkins and Kate Stewart)
Diego Ramirez
Merri Randell
Erica Seccombe
Paul Snell
Susannah Strati
Ioulia Terizi
Mimi Tong
Frank Trimarchi
Undrawing the Line (Zanny Begg)
Carla and Lisa Wherby
Julie Williams
Gabriella and Brent Wilson
Jason Wing