Art / Beyond, John Pratt, Kati Gorgenyi, Toni Hassan and Ujala Aftab. At Chapel Gallery, Charles Sturt University, until May 23. Reviewed by ROB KENNEDY.

Four artists explore global grief in this exhibition, using painting, textiles, newsprint, and installation to create a collection of social statements with heart.

With each artist pondering lament and reckoning with the environmental and political conditions of our time, they have created an exhibition that speaks many voices but states one strong feeling: grief and hope are all around us.

The art explores news cycles, social trends, the impact of commercial visuals, and repetition. Newspapers act as both a memory and a symbol for the artists. Rather than offering a conclusion on our social situation, the exhibition moves across these fields, which gives an introspective viewpoint while seeing the potential for a fresh outlook on life.

The impetus for the exhibition came after Hassan’s experience when recovering from cancer. So, Beyond, is what happens after cancer when you find that there is extra joy in being alive even though the same worldly complexities still exist.

There’s a stunning surreal quality in the woodcut and collage pieces of John Pratt, who was a long-time lecturer at the ANU School of Art and has been collected across the world. While there’s a feeling of the composed in them, they are highly effective. The result of his collage works create much more of a headline than anything in print. He references the impact of technology on our lives and how it has altered our place in the world. This is seen in the juxtaposition of natural elements and digital codes.

The pots, newspapers and bamboo constructions of Kati Gorgenyi, titled ‘Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?’ reminded me of totem poles telling individual stories in a playful manner.

Toni Hassan’s coloured pencil on paper works are as intricate as they are telling. The stories wrapped in each work reveals fear, love, storms and alienation, which say something between wisdom and a question asking, is it a crazy world or is it we who are crazy. The news and its porous effects, which become imbedded in us and turn us against each other are clearly seen in her artworks. Her art helps make sense of our history and where we are today.

With the four mixed media pieces by Ujala Aftab, they sort of sit on the edge of this exhibition, but she is part of this community of artists. That said, some are stunning in their visual effect and in their statement.

The variety of mediums in this exhibition show that a similar artistic statement can be made regardless of the base materials. And these four voices are well worth the time it takes to see and experience this one-off unique exhibition.