Artist talk: Rushdi Anwar

Rushdi Anwar shares his practice, particularly his project ‘We have found in the ashes what we have lost in the fire’ 2018. This sculptural installation resulted from a 2016 visit to the town of Bashiqa in the disputed territory between the Kurdistan Regional and Iraqi governments. Anwar recounts his visit to the main Christian Church in Bashiqa (whose residents are Kurdish Yazidi and Shabak, Assyrian, and Arab Muslim), which was destroyed, bombed and looted by the Islamic State (ISIS). What he found in its remains lies central to this work – photographic memories burned and fused as carefully framed windows relating to his lifelong research into the plight of his people, a Kurdish community seeking sovereignty for centuries in the complex affairs of the Middle East.

About the artist

Rushdi Anwar was educated in Kurdistan and Australia studying at the Institute of Kirkuk- Kurdistan, Enmore Design Centre / Sydney Institute- Sydney. He holds a Master of Fine Art (MFA) 2010 and a Doctorate of Philosophy Art (PhD) 2016, from the School of Art in RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Anwar’s practice explores social inequity through an investigation of form, material vocabulary and processes of making, elucidating a desire to care, pay attention and even seek redemption through art. He has held solo and group exhibitions widely in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, France, Japan, Kurdistan, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, USA and Vietnam. He is currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.

Image: “We have found in the ashes what we lost in the fire” Series, 2018, (Detail).