Join Sparks in the Dark and Making Marks artists for a discussion that elevates Afghan women's voices and 'makes sparks'!

The exhibition Sparks in the Dark combines Afghan women’s embroidered artworks with new works by Mursal Azizi and Kat Rae, emerging Australian artists also touched by the ongoing effects of the Afghanistan war.

Unfolding Projects was conceived by Australian artist Gali Weiss in 2009 as an Australian–Afghan art exchange. Based on sharing experiences and mark-making, the second of three exchanges, Making Marks, resulted in 43 handkerchiefs incorporating print-making and embroidery. The works were exhibited in the Counihan Gallery, Brunswick in 2021, and acquired by the Australian War Memorial. Tracey Avery was one of these Australian artists, and she will join the panel to reflect on her experiences on co-creating artworks with Afghan women.

Enjoy wine, saffron tea, Afghan biscuits and an enriching discussion amongst the art.

About Mursal

Mursal Azizi is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Afghanistan, based in Melbourne.

Exploring themes of women's empowerment and social justice, her practice is deeply rooted in her identity and experiences as an Afghan woman. She believes in social change through art.

About Tracey

Tracey Avery is a curator, artist and design historian, based on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, Central Victoria. She works across cultural heritage and teaching mindfulness.

Tracey’s practices weave together words and images, uncovering the ways we perceive and value our material and natural worlds. She sees the wisdom in these environments revealing pathways for more harmonious ways of living.

About Kat

Kat Rae is an emerging artist based in Naarm (Melbourne). A 20 year veteran of the Australian army, a war widow to suicide, and now an artist, her art practice explores the cost of war, and how place, memory and experience layer and mesh. Obsessed with counter monuments and informed by print, sculpture and installation, her work investigates who and what is ‘forgotten’ after the war.

Doors open at 5.30pm for a 6.00-7.30pm discussion.

Next Wave

270 Sydney Road, Bullek-bek (Brunswick)

Exhibition also open 17–22 August, 11am–4pm

Accessibility

Brunswick Mechanics Institute is a step-free venue with accessible bathrooms.

Video tour of Brunswick Mechanics Institute

Download the Brunswick Mechanics Institute visual story (.docx)
Download the Brunswick Mechanics Institute visual story (.pdf)

Download the Brunswick Mechanics Institute transport and parking information (.docx)
Download the Brunswick Mechanics Institute transport and parking information (.pdf)

Sparks in the Dark is presented by Mursal Azizi and Kat Rae in collaboration with Next Wave.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, as well as through the Wayward Women Giving Fund, Australian National Veterans Art Museum and the Australian War Memorial.