A Curve is a Broken Line by Hoda Afshar is the artist’s first major solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, on view now until 21 January 2024.
Afshar is praised by the gallery as ‘one of Australia’s most innovative and unflinching photomedia artists.’ And it’s likely you’ve seen her work before as it transcends the art world into the realm of photojournalism.
Photography and moving image works from the Melbourne-based, Iranian-born artist serve as both artistic explorations and political inquiry.
Her lens captures and foregrounds people whose person or story might feel overlooked, or worse, invisible. An example of this is her portrait of Behrouz Boochani on Manus Island.
Afshar, says the gallery, is an artist who is ‘resolutely insisting on the humanity of her subjects. She makes us contend with violence and brutality, not through blunt imagery but through evocation. Her work is sensitive and anchored in empathy yet also radical in the way it wrestles with injustice.’
As well as a newly commissioned series, past works will be complemented by a new publication which will comprise creative and experimental responses from a range of writers.
You can listen to a podcast of the artist Hoda Afshar in conversation with Eugenia Lim here.