Photography / You Cannot Trust an Open Sky, by Hilary Wardhaugh. At ANCA Gallery until August 3. Reviewed by BRIAN ROPE

Hilary Wardhaugh was named 2024 Canberra CityNews Artist of the Year, the judges having noted her provocative, innovative and creative art endeavours.

This exhibition responds to what the International Court of Justice has called a “plausible genocide” of the people of Palestine.

Wardhaugh was inspired by Maranasati meditation – reflecting on mortality to foster appreciation and mindfulness in daily life. That led to her visualising responses to, and contemplating on, the nature of death. Using meticulous stencil work, multiple lumen prints (also known as solar photograms) were made. This helped Wardhaugh face challenges when scrolling reports of the conflict.

One work is a collaborative piece. Two framed inkjet prints of night sky photographs – one above Canberra by Wardhaugh and one above Jerusalem by Tarek Bakri – are presented as a diptych. There is considerable similarity in the two prints. Together they invite reflection about experiencing life in a situation of occupation and fear.

Bakri is a Palestinian-born researcher based in Jerusalem. Moved by the nostalgia and emotion held by many Palestinians for their former homes, he developed the idea of documenting their personal stories and displaced Palestinian villages using visual documentation. He received the 2018 Jerusalem Award for Culture and Creativity and has held exhibitions and seminars in Palestine, the Arab world and Europe. He believes that memory is identity and an undeniable human right.

Another work is a set of four metallic prints on woodblock of the colours of the Palestine flag. Wardhaugh is not the first artist to portray these “forbidden colours”. In 1988, Felix Gonzalez-Torres did so; during another period of continuous destruction of Palestine, artists were tested, even forbidden.

This work, like his then, envisages a canvas of repair and emphasises colour attuned to light as possibility, urging solidarity with those affected by loss and war.

A number of artworks make use of dots. A suite of five inkjet prints portrays the ever-diminishing land for Palestinians in Gaza. As with the Forbidden Colours piece, it uses the watermelon symbol of Palestinian unity. Each watermelon slice has fewer dots than the previous one. Another piece, based on an aerial map of Gaza, illustrates the destruction. Dots mark the obliterated areas, providing a deeply felt record of loss.

Another most striking work comprises a suite of 16 inkjet prints of photographs of empty bowls on a digitised lumen of a keffiyeh (traditional headdress worn by men), suspended above the smashed pieces of those bowls. It symbolises the futility of seeking food to honour the Eid religious holiday, celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of Ramadan. The distinctly patterned black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh symbolises nationalism and resistance.

Wardhaugh hopes the artworks create some shared understanding and influence public opinion. I have no doubt they will.