Summary

Digital colour photograph of Melbourne-based Greek refugee, Alyana Eau taken by Nischint Vora in Melbourne in 2013. Alyana is part of a collective artwork 'Attache Case' co-ordinated by Peter Burke in 2015. Alyana created an artwork in this collection: 'Waiting 1991 Gulf War - Zakho, Iraq' (HT 56009.2).

Artist statement provided by Alyana in 2021: 'This collage is a creation of a memory that I once lived. The child gazing is from the inside through holes and fragments that a mortar had crated on her grandparent's door. She waits to see if anyone out there would acknowledge her grief and forgive what her eyes had witnessed; she was looking for hope. As I pieced the collage together, I shed various emotions as I remembered the vulgar details of an event that I had buried in the deepest layer of myself; it helped me heal. I am pleased the artwork toured the world; at least many spectators witnessed the memory of those events.'

Alyana Eau migrated to Australia from Greece in 2000 after fleeing Iraq in 1998. She completed a Bachelor of Design at RMIT with Honours in 2007. Since then, she has participated in numerous art exhibitions and received a Special Mention in the Heartland Refugee Fine Art Prize in 2011. Alyana's love for art began from a young age. She says, 'Through art, I can convey what words cannot portray and I express myself without boundaries or limitations. Art to me is more influential and powerful than any language, it is freedom of thought, and it is what my emotions speak.'

The collective artwork, entitled 'Attache Case' (HT56009), was created by Melbourne artist, curator and lecturer Peter Burke in 2015 as part of an international touring art installation, 'Low-Cost Diplomatic Bag', auspiced by the Spanish Embassy, and curated by Nilo Casares and ArtEx Madrid. It travelled to the Spanish Embassies in five countries, including Australia, in 2015-2016 (one venue included Immigration Museum, Melbourne). 'Attache Case' is comprised of a re-purposed doctor's medical case which opens to reveal small drawers containing 41 individuals' miniature paintings representing 21 refugees from Afghanistan, Vietnam, Poland, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt and Iraq.

Description of Content

Half portrait image of woman with long dark hair wearing black.

Physical Description

Digital-born photograph supplied in digital form by the donor.

Significance

'Attache Case' is a collective artwork created in 2015 in response to an invitation by artist, Peter Burke, to a number of asylum seekers and refugees in Melbourne to express their experience visually. The refugees and asylum seekers (some in detention at the time of the project) who produced the artworks came from diverse countries including Afghanistan, Vietnam, Poland, Colombia, Sri Lanka, Iran, Egypt and Iraq. They explore diverse themes relating to detainment, immigration, border security policies, bureaucracy, and mental health.

The artists convey thoughts and feelings about freedom, opprtunities, life in Australia, resettlement, optimism, despair, grief, hope, fear and anger and the consequences of living in limbo. These refugee and asylum seeker's voices, concerns, and personal perspectives are not often publicly expressed and more often manipulated by media and politics or silenced in their community.

This complex artwork contains a diversity of cultures, genders, experiences, artistic styles, and responses. The oil and acrylic paintings are objects rich with symbolic meaning - both as a part of a luggage item reminiscent of the migrant experience, as well as a traveller's borderless container (representing migration, diplomacy, policy and bureaucracy) of voices that speak to the issues that are at the heart of the asylum seeker situation and debate.

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