Travelling lines, connecting threads

A Together In Art Pocket Exhibition curated by Fatima Hijazi

Migration requires courage and comes with great challenges. For many artists, it also brings new histories, cultural materials and artistic techniques with which to work. As they weave these elements into their work, artists open dialogue between individuals, generations, communities and cultures – thus shifting our perspectives on issues faced around the world by displaced or dispersed people.

Fatima Hijazi is exhibitions project officer at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

AGNSW collection Mona Hatoum Bukhara (red) 2007

Mona Hatoum, a Palestinian born in Lebanon and based in London, wears down the weave of a rug to offer a rescaled map of world power. Its title invokes Bukhara, an ancient city on the Silk Road trade route.

AGNSW collection Rubaba Haider The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread and lives along the line (Alexander Pope) V 2017

Trained in Pakistan in the tradition of Persian miniatures, Melbourne-based artist Rubaba Haider uses ‘exquisitely fine’ brushwork to unveil the fragility of human connections.

AGNSW collection Jumaadi Halfway to the light, halfway through the night 2010-2014

Sydney-based Indonesian artist Jumaadi travelled with some of these drawings for more than four years, connecting memories, objects and encounters through the act of drawing.

AGNSW collection Simryn Gill Roadkill 2000

Bearing evidence of a damaged past, Simryn Gill’s cluster of improvised toy-like vehicles suggests mass movement or migration. What is their direction or destination?

AGNSW collection Jitish Kallat Public Notice 2 2007

4479 bone-shaped sculptures spell out the compelling speech Gandhi gave in 1930 before beginning his walk to Dandi to protest the British Raj salt laws. To read the lines of Jitish Kallat’s work, you must walk with it, pondering Gandhi’s legacy of non-violent protest in the present.