Exploring the diverse cultural issues affecting Sydney’s greater Western region, Campbelltown Arts Centre presents looking at me through you, a socially-charged exhibition featuring twelve Australian artists exploring the rapidly growing city of Campbelltown and Western Sydney.
“We’re using the power and innovation of contemporary art to genuinely reflect the core of the region,” said Michael Dagostino, Director Campbelltown Arts Centre. “Both in a physical and metaphoric sense, looking at me through you goes beyond the national approach, revealing genuine local insight and engagement from an authentic perspective.”
Equipped with comprehensive statistics from Deloitte, the artists will present new works interpreting and interrogating notions of urban development (and underdevelopment), cultural identity and shifting political debates through their own cross-cultural lens, creating a unique self portrait of Campbelltown, while resonating Sydney’s greater Western region and celebrating its diversity.
These new works have been developed by artists Abdul Abdullah, Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, Andrew Christie, Mona Ibrahim, James Nguyen, Pet Projects, Tom Polo, Keren Ruki, Damien Shen, Salote Tawale, Shevaun Wright and 110%.
Western Sydney is rapidly changing and expanding, becoming the blueprint for future living with 10% of Australia’s population and 30% of Sydney already residing in its diverse suburbs. looking at me through you specifically considers Campbelltown as a region, with the twelve selected artists creating socially-engaged works speaking to real issues affecting the community.
Western Sydney based artists Keren Ruki, James Nguyen, Mona Ibrahim, Tom Polo and Andrew Christie have created ambitious new artworks that have explored and drawn on their own connections and interactions with Campbelltown and the broader region.
These artists have witnessed first-hand the rapid transformation and changing social landscape. The juxtaposition of these works with the artists who have explored Campbelltown with an outside eye, while working closely with the community to develop their works, will offer an extensive and collective depiction of Campbelltown as a place.
“The Campbelltown and Western Sydney thematic is at the very heart of our approach, conveying a local narrative in a global context, interrogating the latest ideas and forms in contemporary art,” said Dagostino. “The projects have many socially engaged aspects, with some artists working directly with the community, while other artists have taken an approach that is more analytical, dealing with hard facts and using Campbelltown and their experience of it as the foundation of their research and artwork.”
looking at me through you
Campbelltown Arts Centre, 1 Art Gallery Road, Campbelltown
Exhibition: 27 May – 23 July 2017
Free admission
For more information, visit: www.c-a-c.com.au for details.
Image: Universal Power House: In the Near Future – courtesy of Sonia Leber and David Chesworth