Five Acts of Love Reading Circle

The Five Acts of Love Reading Circle will present an opportunity for contributors to the exhibition publication to share their writing. Elyas Alavi, Dr Jessica Clark and Dr Eugenia Flynn will read their own work and reflect on writers who have influenced them. Hear the writers in conversation with guest curator Dr Nur Shkembi and ACCA's Senior Curator and Head of Exhibitions Dr Shelley McSpedden, discussing ideas related to the exhibition and catalogue. There will also be an opportunity for an audience Q&A.

Dr Nur Shkembi

Nur Shkembi is an award-winning curator, writer and art historian with a research specialisation in Islamic art history, contemporary art and postcolonial theory. Nur has produced and curated over 150 events, exhibitions and community engagement projects and was part of the core team which established the Islamic Museum of Australia. As a museum curator, Nur brought together artefacts, traditional art and contemporary art as a means for collective storytelling, subverting stereotypes and as a provision for the individual narrative. Nur is currently working on a new museum project in Western Sydney, due to open in 2028. Exhibitions include Soul Fury, Bendigo Art Gallery, DOMINION, Arts West Gallery, The University of Melbourne, and Destiny Disrupted, Griffith University Art Museum. Recent academic publications include ‘Neo-Orientalism and the persistence of Holbein carpets: on writing the future history of Islamic art in Australia’ in What is postnational art history?, Perimeter Editions and ‘Destiny Disrupted: A History of Contemporary Islamic Art in ‘Australia’’ in Variations, Monash University Press. Nur holds a PhD in Art History from The University of Melbourne.

Elyas Alavi

Elyas Alavi is a published poet, and visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, moving image, poetry, and performance. His work examines the complex intersections of memory, displacement, gender, and sexuality, addressing hyper- invisibilities and challenging conventional notions of culture and belonging. Alavi’s practice often interrogates histories in the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, exploring their entanglements with globalization, settler colonialism, and the mobility and displacement of Black and Brown bodies.

Dr Jessica Clark

Jessica Clark is a proud palawa/ pallawah woman, born in lurtruwita/trouwerner and currently living and working on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/ Melbourne. She has a background in art history and art education and is currently Senior Curator, First Nations, at the National Gallery of Victoria. Her previous curatorial positions include Curator at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2022–25, and Curatorial Manager of the Victorian First Peoples Art and Design Fair at Creative Victoria, 2024–25. Jessica holds a PhD in Fine Art and Music, 2023, from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, for which she was awarded the Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in 2024. She is the current Ursula Hoff Fellow, 2024–26, at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Eugenia Flynn

Eugenia Flynn is a writer, researcher, and creative whose practice explores narratives of truth, grief, and devastation, interwoven with considerations of race, gender, and identity. Her essays, short stories, and poems have been published in Hello Keanu! A Poetry Anthology, IndigenousX, Peril magazine, Meanjin, and #MeToo: Stories from the Australian Movement. Her text-based works have also been featured in visual art exhibitions, including Waqt al- tagheer: Time of Change at ACE Open; Enough خلص Khalas: Contemporary Australian Muslim Artists at UNSW Galleries; and SOULfury at Bendigo Art Gallery. An Aboriginal (Larrakia and Tiwi), Chinese Malaysian, and Muslim woman, Flynn works across her multiple communities to create change through literature, art, community organising, and community engagement. Her practice is grounded in community-driven approaches and critically engaged storytelling across disciplines.

Image: Eugenia Flynn, for love of country 2025, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis.