Join us for the launch of Somewhat Eternal, a publication documenting artist Justine Youssef’s major new installation of the same name. Hear the artist in conversation with curators Stella Rosa McDonald and Patrice Sharkey as they discuss her practice and the multi-sensory installation.
In its final week, Somewhat Eternal explores the interconnected impacts of displacement and finds hope in acts of ritual and preservation. The publication expands on Youssef’s investigations into relationships to land, dispossession, and enduring beliefs.
Three commissioned texts reflect on the solidarities and postcolonial discourse Youssef’s practice engages with. Latoya Rule—a Wiradjuri/Te Ātiawa, takatāpu/queer writer, poet, and campaigner—writes of solidarity between Aboriginal, Lebanese, and Palestinian communities in Australia. Filmmaker and writer Chi Tran considers Youssef’s metaphysical connections to the world as a form of resistance against colonial regimes. Mykaela Saunders—a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer and editor, teacher, and researcher—bridges the distances implicit in Youssef’s inheritances.
Somewhat Eternal shares affinities, affirms solidarities, and articulates the political and social relations between those whose own distinct lived experiences trace the global outlines of Youssef’s concerns.
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Justine Youssef‘s site-responsive work often begins with moments and places that reconfigure authoritative realities. Working with scent, video, and installation, her recent works include With The Toughest Care, the Most Economical Tenderness at the Hawaii Triennial, O’ahu (2022); A Gateway or a Key at the Powerhouse Museum, Gadigal/Sydney (2022); and Under the Table I Learnt How to Feed You at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Gadigal/Sydney (2022). She lives on Dharug Country in Sydney, Australia, where she was a Parramatta Artist Studios resident (2018-21) and a recipient of the Copyright Agency’s John Fries Award (2019).
Stella Rosa McDonald is Managing Curator of UTS Gallery and Art Collection in Gadigal/Sydney. She has initiated exhibitions, commissions, and publications, with artists including Cigdem Aydemir, Hannah Brontë, Hossei, Sidney McMahon, Kent Morris, Diana Baker Smith, Grant Stevens, and Leyla Stevens. Her recent curatorial projects include Joel Sherwood Spring: Objects Testify, Hayley Millar Baker: There We Were All in One Place, and Forensic Architecture: Cloud Studies, co-curated with Eleanor Zeichner. She has contributed writing to publications including Vitamin P3: New Perspectives in Painting, Overland, and Ocula.
Patrice Sharkey is Head of Exhibitions and Programs at TarraWarra Museum of Art. Before this, she was Artistic Director of Adelaide Contemporary Experimental in Tandanya/Perth, and Director of West Space and Assistant Curator at Monash University Museum of Art, both in Naarm/Melbourne. Her recent curatorial projects include A River that Flows Both Ways: Selected Works from the 23rd Biennale of Sydney: Rīvus and Peter Waples-Crowe: Pride, co-curated with Dominic Guerrera for Tarnanthi: Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. Later this year, she will present Octopus 24: Ricochet at Gertude Contemporary, Naarm/Melbourne.
