Opening celebration: Hoda Afshar and 'Old ways, new ways'

Join us for the launch of MGA’s exhibitions, Speak the wind by Hoda Afshar and Old ways, new ways featuring artists from three collections, reflecting on the ways that First Nations artists have used photography to speak across generations.

In the exhibition, Speak the wind, Iranian / Australian artist, Hoda Afshar proffers an enigmatic view of the rituals and lives that play out within the astounding landscape of these islands. As she uses photography and moving image to ensnare and parse the winds of the Strait of Hormuz, Afshar also grapples with the history of documentary photography; its beauty and its limits.

In Old ways, new ways, works from three collections sit together to consider the ways that First Nations photography makes links between times gone by and the present, placing traditions within contemporary practice, speaking (sometimes shouting, at times singing, sometimes performing) across generations and through passages of time. Through various approaches — from documentation of protests and ceremonies, to conceptual and performative photography — each photographer exhibiting at MGA has co-opted the camera to test what this means to them.

Works are drawn for the Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection, The Koorie Heritage Trust Collection and the Horsham Regional Art Gallery Collection.