SERWAH ATTAFUAH, MOSTAFA AZIMITABAR, BILLY BAIN, GOSHA HELDTZ, JACQUIE MENG & HEATH NOCK

’YOU’RE WELCOME’
24 JANUARY – 28 MARCH, 2025

LAUNCH: Thursday 23 January, 6-8pm
Open Sunday 26 January (Invasion Day), 10am-5pm

PUBLIC PROGRAMS
19 & 20 February - Performances: The Path by Fei Gao
27 March - Curatorial Floor Talk

Billy Bain, Stolen Land (detail), 2024. Ceramic sculpture with underglaze, glaze and metallic lustres, fabric and wood. 

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

What does it mean to be welcome in Australia?

I’ve found myself struggling with the contradictions of this idea recently. Being an Aboriginal person in a country where every formal event is preceded by an official welcoming on the behalf of our people, yet when it comes time to implement and amplify our voices, it is met with a resounding NO! When our minorities are treated with the privilege of having their self-determination and freedoms voted on in plebiscites and referendums by a vastly xenophobic and easily threatened public, who struggle to comprehend any lived experience that sits outside of their rusted-on belief systems. The irony of guarding our borders so steadfastly from “invaders” seeking refuge, yet cultivating a national identity that celebrates our “young” history commemorating a time when strange foreigners arrived on our shores in boats. 

You’re Welcome? explores the ways in which a group of young Sydney-based artists form, express, and interrogate ideas of what it means to be welcome. Through non-traditional, figurative portraiture, these artists navigate their own multicultural identities and create both physical and digital space for community, despite an often hostile and unwelcoming wider Australian consciousness.  

Running concurrently with The University of Sydney’s Welcome Week and Invasion Day, You’re Welcome? celebrates and platforms these artists’ unique stories and perspectives, from the political to the surreal and humorous. 

- Billy Bain