Portrait of Promise: domesticated yet feral angel

25 August — 26 September 2021

Curated by Georgia Hayward

Portrait of Promise: domesticated yet feral angel (2002-ongoing) is a archival work by Ruaa Al-Rikabi that resembles a shrine of her past selves. The intricate work delivers Ruaa’s collection in the form of a shrine, mourning incorrectly glorified western social constructs and beauty standards. Portrait of Promise acts as Ruaa’s healing and rerelease from engrained destructive behaviours and mindsets.

Ruaa Al-Rikabi is a Iraqi-Syrian Australian emerging contemporary artist whose practice investigates themes of intersectional identity, self-preservation and re-representation of desirability. Ruaa’s practice looks at the rich experience of intersectional identities and how this can be linked to experiences of displacement and difference, shown through an ongoing development of a living archive of her self-identity. Ruaa employs materials which she deems significant to her self-identity as surrogates to encapsulate her lived experiences, this includes hair, food and photographs. Through rejecting essentialist assumptions about intersectional BIPOC identity, Ruaa’s practice aims to engage in an act of decolonisation that empowers and liberates intersectional identities.

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As We Stand is a capsule exhibition curated by Georgia Hayward and installed in the Outer Space Window Gallery, showcasing six local early-career artists; Kyra Mancktelow, Paula de la Rua Cordoba, Dylan Mooney, Ruaa Al-Rikabi, Amy Sargeant and Lucy Nguyễn-Hunt who each use their practice to take a stand on current socio-cultural issues through prophesying courses of action. Responding to a diverse array of contemporary issues, the artists challenge cultural hegemony and socio-political dysfunctionality to establish and celebrate narratives of intersectionality, cultural expression, queer liberation and decolonisation.

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