LOVE was created in 2015 in response to the experiences of people seeking asylum who were prevented from settling in Australia. At the time, many of those affected were families, including children. As a mother of a young child, I found the situation deeply distressing and felt a strong need to respond through my art.
Rather than responding through anger, I chose love as my message. I created the bronze sculpture as a reminder of compassion, humanity and hope, and as a reflection on the importance of considering human lives and families behind political decisions.
I had imagined taking the sculpture to Parliament as a gesture and a reminder to bring love and humanity into decisions affecting people's lives. Although I never carried out this plan, the intention behind the work has remained an important part of my artistic journey.
The work uses Persian-inspired calligraphic form to transform the word LOVE into a sculptural object. For me, the physical transformation of the word is significant: an idea that begins as language becomes something tangible that can occupy space, be touched, seen, and carried.
LOVE has been exhibited in Adelaide and Melbourne, including exhibitions in Castlemaine and Abbotsford. The work was also published in Southerly 79.2: Writing Through Fences – Archipelago of Letters, in connection with the contribution “A Gift of Love.”
The work remains meaningful to my practice because it represents an early expression of ideas that continue to return throughout my work: compassion, freedom, belonging, human connection, and the stories carried by objects.
