Suburban Views
Imran Abul Kashem, Rachel Morley, Ammar Yonis
Three Wyndham-based photographic artists explore self-representation as resistance in the context of a commercialised Australian suburbia. Photographers Imran Abul Kashem, Rachel Morley and Ammar Yonis all have a connection to Wyndham, either living and working in the city or growing up there and returning at different times. Regardless of whether they are near or far from Wyndham as both physical place and subject, the suburb clearly remains a strong artistic provocation for each artist. They become observers and reporters, using their cameras to dissect and declare, to examine and express, to play, to protest, to witness.
Materials
Artists
Imran Abul Kashem
Imran Abul Kashem is a Wyndham-based photographer and storyteller. Formerly a journalist, Abul Kashem moved to Australia from Bangladesh in 2008 and found it difficult to share people’s stories in an unfamiliar language. He turned to photography, later studying at Melbourne Polytechnic. Abul Kashem has been the recipient of numerous grants and prizes, and has undertaken residencies in Australia and Japan. More recently, much of his work centres on the transformation of his local Werribee South, capturing change as new residential development encroaches upon existing ecosystems and farmland.
Rachel Morley
Rachel Morley is a Tarneit-based artist and arts worker. Her practice explores relationships to place and the construction of memory through photography and photo collage. Drawing on her personal experience of insecure housing, recent works reflect class tensions and politics through representations of the house/home and suburb/hometown. Morley has presented solo exhibitions at Analogue Academy (2022) and The Annex (2023). Her work Housing should not be for profit was shortlisted for the 2023 Wyndham Art Prize.
Ammar Yonis
Ammar Yonis is a Harari-Australian artist based in Melbourne’s west. His work blends fiction with his own realities to explore narratives often marginalised. His photography was awarded the Local Acquisition Prize runner-up at the Footscray Art Prize and won the Capturing Culture Competition at the Immigration Museum.