Today, on World Refugee Day, Australia’s Official War Artists have come out in condemnation of the punitive treatment of a fellow artist held in detention.
LYNDELL BROWN & CHARLES GREEN are signatories on an open letter published today in support of Farhad Bandesh, a refugee whose art has helped him survive 7 years of imprisonment and whose materials are now being arbitrarily withheld.
“The scary intensity we felt in active war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan intensified our profound empathy for all those who flee their homes in times of conflict,” said Brown and Green. “Refugees deserve to be given a chance.”
The letter, published via @nava_visualarts, asks “Why withhold art materials? They are not illegal or unsafe. The threat lies, instead, in the ability of art to challenge injustice, the power of a free voice in an unfree system…A paintbrush can be a lifeline for a prisoner.”
Inset painting detail from Lyndell Brown & Charles Green’s work The Far Country (2019) showing refugees fleeing across the high Kurdish mountains.