Nadia Refaei
 ناديا الرفاعي


  1. Sabaar and Other Counter Archives
  2. A Whisper Echoes Loudest
  3. olive branch (curator)
  4. Thomas’ Garden (co-curator)
  5. Dawit Dersolign (co-curator)
  6. a garden for the things you love
  7. New Energy
  8. Roots
  9. Leading Letters
  10. Rehearsing the Future
  11. Making Ground (curator)
  12. Make Kabsah With Me
  13. 1998-2011 / ١٩٩٨-٢٠١١
  14. Both sides of either wall (co-curator)
  15. In Visible Woman
  16. Plastic Women

About
CV





Both sides of either wall


Georgia Morgan and Shireen Taweel

Curated by Nadia Refaei and Ainslie Macaulay

Kelly’s Garden and Lightbox Gallery

16 May – 8 August 2020


Both sides of either wall considers the role of public space in the blurring of place, memory and meaning. Presented by Salamanca Arts Centre as part of Older than Language, curated by Nina Miall and Jiva Parthipan

Georgia Morgan has been applying paste-ups to Hobart’s overlooked and unseen walls since 2018. For Both sides of either wall Georgia has applied paste-ups to blue tarpaulin. The use of this material finds connection in the history of Kelly’s Garden as an industrial warehouse space, continuing the artist’s focus on creating meaning in non-prescribed places.

Georgia is interested in the blending of ‘high’ and ‘low’ and the subsequent aesthetic contradictions that occur when using materials in this way. Blue tarpaulin has featured repeatedly in her work since travelling to Malaysia and spending time in her Tamil family’s local Hindu temple – a concrete slab with blue tarpaulin overhead. A space with meaning born from its intention, rather than construction.

Using stills from handy-cam footage the artist took in Malaysia and India, 2018, the paste-ups depict walls and thresholds. When applying them to walls in her current surrounds, the artist imagines she is opening a portal. The texture of the physical wall informs the printed image and vice versa. Where is here and where is there?
Shireen Taweel’s work broaches the construction of cultural heritage, knowledge and identity through the investigation of physical and public spaces. Her works are often site-specific, weaving local narratives and research through material and sound.

Both sides of either wall presents a soundscape from a previous work Beneath Routes in Kelly’s Garden. Taken on a commute between Beirut and Tripoli during Lebanon’s winter, the soundscape is a collage of field recordings that unpacks the artist’s understanding of the Lebanese diaspora and cultural exchange through the digital age. Beneath Routes is currently on show in Byblos, Lebanon at the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum (MACAM) – and throughout the duration of Both sides of either wall, the soundscapes will play simultaneously in Kelly’s Garden, Nipaluna and MACAM, Byblos, bridging the two spaces.


Images: Cassie Sullivan



Images: Rémi Chauvin