Tarik Ahlip, Lara Chamas and Samira Farah
“Paradise, Beauty and Violence”
In April, 2022, West Space presented a onversation between Tarik Ahlip and Lara Chamas, facilitated by Samira Farah as part of Tarik's West Space exhibition Paradise.
Taking inspiration from the bodies of work of the two artists, their overlapping interests and experiences, their conversation unpacks themes explored within Paradise around faith, beauty, violence, memory and the Islamic migrant experience as it occurs here in Australia.
Tarik Ahlip has a background in Architecture and works across sculpture, film and verse. Ahlip's practice considers poetics as capable of driving epistemic change. He is currently working on a nature documentary and a short film project to be shot in Istanbul.
Lara Chamas is a first generation Australian-Lebanese artist, based in Melbourne. Her practice investigates sub topics of postcolonial and migrant narratives, specifically within the context of her cultural identity, in relation to contemporary Australian and global, political society. Currently a completing a masters by research in fine art at Monash University, central to her research is the expansion on these notions in a more historical and anthropological sense.
Samira Farah is a curator, creative producer and radio presenter. She hosts The Score on Triple R.