I Am, You Are, We Are, They Are
Four Sydney artists bring to light the multicultural image of Australia - exposing the issues and questions that surround its identity.
Curated by Tian Zhang, I Am, You Are, We Are, They Are brings together the voices of Abdul Abdullah, Idil Abdullahi, Liam Benson and Amala Groom to present their givings and misgivings about identity politics in Australia.
Using personal approaches, each work extends to explore larger political and social issues – unravelling ideas of identity, representation, visibility and belonging. The use of art to make visible the less discussed topics in mainstream media adds depth to the discussion of identity. Between the four artists, works specifically explore national policies, issues or imagery; including Aboriginal Sovereignty, Islamophobia, women’s rights, refugees and the LGBTIQ community.
Whether charged and provocative or indirect in their subtlety, each work results in a balanced exhibition that explores the multifaceted nature of Australian identity.
With an engaging program (see below) I Am, You Are, We Are, They Are invites you to join the discussion of what constitutes ‘Australianness’, a topic that is as fluid and diverse as the identities that make it up.
PANEL DISCUSSION – FREE
Saturday 22 April 2017, 1.30pm-3pm
Join the artists Abdul Abdullah, Idil Abdullahi, Liam Benson and Amala Groom, exhibition curator Tian Zhang and panel moderator Mikala Tai (Director, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art) in a lively discussion about who we are as a nation.
HENNA WORKSHOP WITH IDIL ABDULLAHI
Saturday 6 May 2017, 11.30am-1pm
Cost: $10
Learn to make your own henna and enjoy a relaxed afternoon creating and applying your own designs. Find out about the use of henna in Idil’s art practice and design.
EXHIBITION
I AM , YOU ARE, WE ARE, THEY ARE
Opening Saturday 25 March
Until 14 May
Peacock Gallery and Auburn Arts Studio
Courtesy the artists and Peacock Gallery and Auburn Arts Studio.


Designed to impress, the number and size of paintings—twenty-nine at nine square metres each and one even bigger—are a spectacle, lifting the exhibition from an...
Skilfully assimilating secondary sources throughout Paris in Ruins, Smee at the conclusion of Part One, “Salon of 1869,” writes that Auguste Renoir’s and Claude Monet’s...
Multidisciplinary artist Shireen Taweel looks skyward, into the night and beyond, with her exhibition the trig point. Drawing on fieldwork in 2025 at the Siding...
It was back in 2011 that Pip Wallis, senior curator at the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), remembers first seeing the work of Balinese...
Senior Pitjantjatjara artist, Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin, was born in 1952 near Bumbali Creek in the Northern Territory, close to the border with South Australia; daughter...
For those of us who seek out unfamiliar voices and see the potential for diverse cultures to create new meanings and memories in a postcolonial...
Show me the beauty of a body contorted by thrall. Then, show me the thrall. Shame is a vast word....
Kon Gouriotis: How did you come to be working with the Yinhawangka community? Pedram Khosronejad: My journey to working with the Yinhawangka community has...
The Art Gallery of South Australia’s (AGSA) Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art has seen real competition over the past two decades, as other institutions have...