Tarik Ahlip, Lara Chamas and Samira Farah
“Paradise, Beauty and Violence”
To celebrate the final weekend of Tarik Ahlip's ‘Paradise’, on the 30th of April 2022, West Space presented an in-conversation between Tarik and Lara Chamas, facilitated by Samira Farah. 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.
Recorded at West Space, April 30, 2022.
This program was supported by City of Yarra through their annual arts grant.
Tarik Ahlip works across sculpture, film, verse and sound; his practice considers poetics as capable of driving epistemic change. He has held solo exhibitions at Chapter House Lane (Melbourne), Alaska Projects (Sydney) and LON Gallery (Melbourne). He is an artist in residence at Parramatta Artists Studios, Rydalmere. He is currently working on a series of short films about the politics of God, and a solo exhibition for Verge Gallery (Sydney) in November 2022.
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. Fleeing from civil war, her parents migrated to Australia, in which she was born. This inbetweenness of world and cultures informs her practice greatly. Her practice explores this in relation to contemporary Australian and global society, and current political issues, such as; colonialism, refugees, racism, otherness, stigma, language, islamaphobia, terrorism and power relations within 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. With discussing geopolitical issues, research and first hand experience is important to the genuinely of her work. Middle Eastern historical and cultural comparatives provide surprising amount of relativity and perspective into contemporary Australian culture as experienced by the artist.
Samira Farah is a curator, creative producer and radio presenter. She hosts The Score on Triple R.