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




Leading Letters

Nadia Refaei and Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie

Hobart Library, Mathers House, Criterian House, Tong Market Center, Sawak Cafe, Hobart City Council Customer Service

October 2021 – February 2022


A series of public artworks, displayed on windows and walls across sites in Nipaluna/Hobart, based on a Council text translated into a constructed language. The text is taken from the Your Say Hobart page on the City of Hobart website. Each artwork is translated into a constructed, fragmented language made using English, Arabic, Tigrinya, Mandarin, Nepali, Malay and Greek. These languages represent the cultural identities of the artists as well as established and emerging cultural communities in the Greater Hobart area, according to census data. 

The sites where the artworks appear are a mix of council owned and operated spaces and spaces that engage with, or are significant to, the community. Audiences are encouraged to interact with Leading Letters as a series and move between sites following their sequence. 
Leading Letters explores the relationship between power and language; considering its role in accessing public arenas, civic participation and the dissemination of information. By translating and assembling a Council text (originally meant for public engagement) into an intentionally confusing series, audiences are prompted to consider the role of language in inclusion and exclusion. 

Leading Letters, Sawak Cafe, 2021–22


Leading Letters, Hobart Library, 2021–22
LeadinLeading Letters, Hobart Library, 2021–22g Letters, Hobart Library, 2021–22
Leading Letters, Hobart Library, 2021–22
Leading Letters, Mathers House, 2021–22
Leading Letters, Mathers House, 2021–22
Leading Letters, Criterion House, 2021–22
Leading Letters, Criterion House, 2021–22
Leading Letters, Mathers House, 2021–22


Leading Letters, Hobart City Council Customer Service, 2021–22
Leading Letters, Tong Market, 2021–22



Supported by the City of Hobart through the Creative Hobart grant scheme