HOLDING SPACE 2026 – Rituals of Reciprocity – Land and Water: Exhibition Launch

CuriousWorks warmly invites you to the launch of our major exhibition at Chrissie Cotter Gallery as part of the HOLDING SPACE 2026 – Rituals of Reciprocity – Land and Water program. 

Time: 1-4pm

Date: Saturday, 24th of October 2026

Location: Chrissie Cotter Gallery, 31A Pidcock St, Camperdown Sydney. Access details can be found here.

During the exhibition launch, you will hear from artists Rodaba Qureshi, Azarmidokht Elahi, and poetry by Fale Tumanu.

This will be followed by a selection of traditional Persian music featuring the tanbur, performed by Mahya Panahi, accompanied by vocalist Taba Ostad.

The event will be MC’ed by HOLDING SPACE curator Vandana Ram.

Rituals of Reciprocity – Land and Water explores First Nations, refugee, and culturally diverse understandings of land and water, aiming to share cultural and creative ideas centred around exchange and mutuality in and between communities.

This exhibition showcases a range of artworks and short films created by project artists and community members, engaged in residencies, creative developments and community based workshops.

Artists: Ali Rezvani, Aprille Asfoura & Ahmed Elkhalidi, Azarmidokht Elahi, Catherine Sarah Young, Fale Tumanu, Kirsten Maglalang, Kylie Colemane, Nicole Barakat, Rodaba Qureshi, Shiva Dadvar, Sivani Yaddanapudi, Sohrab Kolahdooz & Shervin Mirzeinali, duo: Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal & Ria Soemardjo, and collective: Annabel Hom, Maggie Tra, San May & Sovanarry Chan.

This is a free event, however registrations are essential. Light refreshments provided. Please register by clicking the red button below.

HOLDING SPACE is funded by the NSW Government through the Multicultural NSW COMPACT Program. Our project collaborators are SSI’s Community Refugee Welcome Centre located at Callan Park, Lilyfield, and Community Partners Sydney Opera House. 

For any questions, please email CuriousWorks' HOLDING SPACE Curator Vandana Ram, at vandana@curiousworks.com.au.

ARTIST BIOS:

Rodaba Qureshi was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. She completed her high school education at Kabul, Abul Qasim Ferdawsi High School and later graduated with honors from the Institute of Fine Arts and Industry. She pursued painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University, graduating with honors after completing a year of Turkish language preparation. Her work explores themes of identity, culture, and the resilience of women, expressed through symbolic and expressive imagery. She primarily works with oil paints. Currently based in Australia, she continues to develop her artistic practice and share her visual narratives.

Azarmidokht Elahi is an Iranian-Australian multidisciplinary artivist, educator, and community arts facilitator based in Sydney. She is the founder and creative director of HamAva Women’s Group, a community platform that brings women from diverse cultural backgrounds together through art, dialogue, and collaborative creativity.

With more than 25 solo exhibitions across Iran and Australia, Azarmidokht’s artistic practice explores themes of identity, migration, memory, gender, and human rights. Working across visual arts, installation, and participatory projects, her work creates spaces where personal narratives and collective histories can be expressed, witnessed, and shared.

Her practice is grounded in community engagement and socially responsive art. Through workshops, public programs, and collaborative projects, she works with culturally diverse communities, including migrants, refugees, and women navigating displacement and social change.

Azarmidokht’s work is deeply connected to ideas of belonging, reciprocity, and care. She is particularly interested in how artistic practices can connect people to land, memory, and each other while amplifying voices that are often unheard.

Alongside her artistic practice, she works as a community arts teacher with TAFE NSW, facilitating the Art and Connection course and creative programs that support cultural exchange, empowerment, and social connection.

Fale Tumanu is a proud Sāmoan word artist, an emerging writer, and theatre performer. She currently resides and creates on Dharawal land. Her work is deeply informed by Fāgogo (traditional storytelling), her cultural lens, as well as exploring the raw, real and mundane realities of the human experience. Fale’s been an active participant in the writing scene, having been shortlisted for her work in the RUSSH Magazine Literary Showcase, mentored by Sweatshop, and is a co-founder of Pacific-led writing collective Tagata Moana Writers.

Fale’s writing journey started out as an outlet for her emotions and yet has evolved into short stories, prose and many other poetry forms. When she is away from writing, she enjoys reading, meditating in her garden, and is always on the lookout for the next community event to attend and support. 

Vandana Ram brings deep experience in community-based arts practice and cultural development to CuriousWorks.

Vandana has been directly involved in the growth of community cultural development as a practice in Australia – helping to shape and advocate for it as an embedded practice for artists and communities. Specifically, she has over 20 years of expertise working in the arts for Western Sydney, most recently as the founding Director of Bankstown Arts Centre, as well as extensive experience in curation, policy, arts management, and public art, developing successful community partnerships along the way.
She is also a practising visual artist exploring migration, and colonisation as well as the histories and geographies of Western Sydney.

Mahya Panahi is an Iranian Tanbur player based in Sydney, with a Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Art, Iran, and currently pursuing a Master of Music at Excelsia University. With 15 years of experience in Tanbur performance, her practice is grounded in Iranian musical traditions, ensemble collaboration and solo performance. She has performed across various festivals and projects, and in August 2023 organised Sama, her first group concert.

Taba Ostad is a Sydney-based singer, performer and multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges Persian musical traditions with contemporary performance. With a powerful, expressive voice and a passion for storytelling, she explores themes of identity, culture and belonging. Having performed across Australia and Iran, Taba brings an emotionally rich and distinctive presence to the stage, connecting Persian heritage with contemporary artistic expression.