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




New works by Dawit Dersolign 


Curated by Nadia Refaei and Sharifah Emalia Al Gadrie

Good Grief Studios

3 – 18 December 2022
Dawit Dersolign doesn't call himself an artist. As a child, he experimented with artmaking, then returned to it for a few years as a teenager living in a refugee camp in Sudan. Beginning work at Life Raft Tasmania in 2017 presented Dawit with an array of waste materials, and creative possibilities, that prompted the work he makes today. Dawit’s works are colourful, playful and decorative – and often functional. This exhibition presents mixed media sculptural, 2D and interactive works made from reclaimed industrial waste such as pool noodles, Christmas baubles, thermal blankets, packing cardboard and even recycled industrial glue. 




When first viewing Dawit’s artworks, I was reminded of the video game, De Blob. In this game, characters bring colour to a world of a greyscale palette, after you see its life and vitality being sucked from the screen. Through continuing the game, you begin to see the environment from a new perspective, with the main character gradually adding colour to the parts of the city they touch and move through.

I think the visual and emotional impact of viewing Dawit’s works functions in a similar way to the premise of De Blob. They bring colour, life, and energy to the world. To experience Dawit’s works is to feel alive, and to feel warmth in a world that at times, can feel monotonous and bleak. I feel invigorated seeing Dawit’s works. They allow me to see the world in a renewed and energising manner, and I carry this feeling with me whenever I think of them. 

...

When I visited Dawit at his home I found it amusing to hear about the objects he had repainted since curators Nadia Refaei and Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie had last visited. Dawit primarily reworks pieces due to boredom, or the desire to try new things. He starts with a material and sees where his inspiration takes him. 

— excerpts from catalogue essay by Jade Irvine

Download catalogue (English/Amharic)
Images: Cassie Sullivan


Presented by Constance ARI



Images: Cassie Sullivan