The first major solo exhibition by one of Australia’s most innovative and unflinching photo media artists, the Art Gallery of New South Wales presents Hoda Afshar: A Curve is a Broken Line.
Through her photographs and moving image works, Iranian-born, Melbourne-based Hoda Afshar examines the politics of image-making. Deeply researched yet emotionally sensitive, her work can be seen as a form of activism as much as an artistic inquiry.
Afshar uses the camera to give visibility to those who have been denied it, 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 anchored in empathy yet also radical in the way it wrestles with injustice.
This exhibition features photography and film from the past decade to present a comprehensive overview of Afshar’s recent practice, including a newly commissioned series. Amassed together in dialogue for the first time in a major public institution, these works offer a poignant reminder of the power of images and their coercive potential.
An accompanying publication offers critical insight into Afshar’s work as well as creative and experimental responses from a range of writers.
Hoda Afshar: A Curve is a Broken Line
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain (Sydney)
Exhibition: 2 September 2023 – 21 January 2024
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au for details.
Image: Hoda Afshar, Untitled #6 from the series, Speak the wind, 2015–22 – courtesy of the artist and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney