Marsden Gallery
1 June - 23 August

Artists Jomakhan Jafari and Danny Kennedy have interviewed Western Sydney residents about their dreams, and have collaborated to interpret the dreams using Persian calligraphy and photography. Each dream 'interpretation' is accompanied by excerpts of the interviews, moving statements by the interviewees about their dreams. One of the statements starts with "I dreamt I was an educated man."

Jomakhan Jafari's calligraphic works, the swirling, overlayed and repeated letters which are the hallmark of the "siyah mashq" (Persian) calligraphy style are inherently suited to describing dreams. There is hidden logic within the apparent chaos, symbols re-occur, forms appear and melt back into the blackness of the tar. The calligraphy is predominantly composed of words from the dreams themselves and are accompanied by the accomplished photography of Dan Kennedy who interprets the dreams using sites from across Western Sydney to create real images that create a sense of the fantastical or imagined.

Western Sydney is the most multi-cultural area of Sydney with large percentages of the population born overseas (over 40% in Liverpool). In dreams different places, times, cultures and ideas alternate and converge, suggesting that beyond the physical dichotomy of “here” and “there”, “then” and “now”.

جمعه خان جعفری و دنیال کندی با گروهی از ساکنان محلی سیدنی  در رابطه با رویاهایشان مصاحبه هایی را انجام داده اند و این رویاها را با کمک هنر خوش نویسی پارسی و عکاسی تفسیر کرده و به تصویر کشیده اند وخلاصه از مصاحبه هاي جمع اوري شده بصورت تابلو هنري ترسيم نموده ايم كه شما مي توانيد بعد خواندن اين داستان متوجه ارتباط بين كارهاي هنري خواهيد شد

Click here to read the exhibition publication for A Familiar Place I've Never Seen.

Header Image: Jomakhan Jafari and Danny Kennedy.