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HOLDING SPACE 2026 – Rituals of Reciprocity – Land and Water Workshops

Workshops
2026

HOLDING SPACE is a three year annual program of artistic commissions, creative developments, workshops, public programs and events that aims to provide a provocation and a forum to share cultural and creative ideas, experiences, understandings and learnings centred around belonging and community connectedness. In 2026, the theme is Rituals of Recriprocity – Land and Water. Learn more about the artists here.

In response to theme of Rituals of Reciprocity – Land and Water, the artists are running workshops and creating artistic works across various creative mediums including visual art, film, and performance. This will all be centred around sharing cultural and creative ideas, experiences, intercultural understandings and learnings centred around stewardship of the planet and community connectedness.

To learn more about the HOLDING SPACE 2026 – Rituals of Reciprocity – Land and Water public program including the exhibition launch at Chrissie Cotter Gallery & showcases at the Sydney Opera House, please click here.

Petrichoric: Atmospheres of Arrival
Catherine Sarah Young

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What does rain mean to you? Come and share your memories of rain through a guided sensory workshop of sounds and smells of rainfall, storms and rivers, and the scents associated with wet earth, plants, and changing weather.

Through listening, exploring scents and through conversation, participants will contribute to stories of the relationship between land and water and how rain connects people, places, and histories across time. We will also be making a rain gauge but instead of measuring rain, participants will add 'memory markers' where they write the layers of memories from the rainfalls they have experienced. 

🗓️ 11am-1pm. Sunday, 8th of November 2026

📍Chrissie Cotter Gallery. 31A Pidcock St, Camperdown NSW 2050. Find info about access here.

✨ This workshop is free however registrations are essential. Please register via this Humanitix webpage.

Artist bio
Dr. Catherine Sarah Young is a Filipino-Chinese interdisciplinary artist, designer, writer, and scholar. With a background in molecular biology, fine art, and interaction design, she cultivates an artscience practice by using scientific experimentation and molecular transformations in her art-making, often relating these to environmental and social issues. Catherine has an international profile, with numerous fellowships, exhibitions, and speaking engagements. She was one of ArtReview Asia’s Future Greats in 2018, a Thirteen Artist Awards recipient in the Philippines in 2021, was listed as one of the 10 Women Leading the Fight against Climate Change by Earth.org in 2024, and is an Obama Leader for Asia-Pacific. Her PhD dissertation is entitled, ‘The Ghost of Rain: Investigating Petrichor as Companion Molecules in the Critical Zones through the Arts’. She is currently a sessional academic in UNSW Sydney School of Art and Design where she mentors Master of Design students on their capstone projects framed around the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Reflections on Land and Water
Azarmidokht Elahi

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Through writing and hands-on crafting, this participatory workshop invites visitors to engage in a shared experience of reflection, dialogue, and creative exchange. Working with natural materials like handmade paper, soil, coconut husk, tumeric, and natural pigments, participants will respond to the themes of land and water, expressing their own cultural memories, values, and connections. Creating a space for intercultural dialogue, shared stories, and meaningful human connection, the works will be created on cards, placed inside envelopes, and anonymously gifted to another participant — an unknown friend. Each card will carry a message in a language that comes from the heart, creating a personal connection between two people who may never have met.

🗓️ 11am-12pm. Saturday, 7th of November 2026

📍Chrissie Cotter Gallery. 31A Pidcock St, Camperdown NSW 2050. Find info about access here

✨ This workshop is free however registrations are essential. Please register via this Humanitix webpage.

Artist bio
Azarmidokht Elahi is an Iranian-Australian multidisciplinary artivist, educator, and community arts facilitator based in Sydney. She is the founder and creative director of HamAva Women’s Group, a community platform that brings women from diverse cultural backgrounds together through art, dialogue, and collaborative creativity.

With more than 25 solo exhibitions across Iran and Australia, Azarmidokht’s artistic practice explores themes of identity, migration, memory, gender, and human rights. Working across visual arts, installation, and participatory projects, her work creates spaces where personal narratives and collective histories can be expressed, witnessed, and shared.

Her practice is grounded in community engagement and socially responsive art. Through workshops, public programs, and collaborative projects, she works with culturally diverse communities, including migrants, refugees, and women navigating displacement and social change.
Azarmidokht’s work is deeply connected to ideas of belonging, reciprocity, and care. She is particularly interested in how artistic practices can connect people to land, memory, and each other while amplifying voices that are often unheard.

Alongside her artistic practice, she works as a community arts teacher with TAFE NSW, facilitating the Art and Connection course and creative programs that support cultural exchange, empowerment, and social connection.

Ngayomi / Shelter
Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Ria Soemardjo

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Artists Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Ria Soemardjo will be leading their Ngayomi / Shelter workshop which will be a gentle gathering of movement, rhythm, water, listening and making. This is for people aged 18 and above.

Ngayomi is a Javanese word meaning to shelter, nurture and protect. These workshops invite us to consider shelter not only as a physical place, but as something we create together through care, presence, reciprocity and connection.

Through movement, rhythm, listening, conversation and craft, Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Ria Soemardjo invite participants into a shared space for slowing down and reconnecting with body, spirit, water, memory and place.

Together, we will explore simple ritual practices grounded in deep listening and receptive harmony. We will work with everyday materials to create handmade vessels and water-based objects, drawing inspiration from shelter, care, animism and the living presence held within the material world.

There is no expectation to perform or create in any particular way. The workshop is an invitation to be curious, to listen, to move gently, to make with others and to allow space for reflection and exchange.

The objects created through these gatherings will continue their journey into Ngayomi / Shelter, a larger processional performance ritual taking place on Sunday 1 November. Carried and installed as part of the procession, the vessels will become part of a shared ceremonial journey of welcome, care and transformation. 

🗓️ 11am-12pm. Sunday, 25th of October 2026

📍Chrissie Cotter Gallery. 31A Pidcock St, Camperdown NSW 2050. Find info about access here

✨ This workshop is free however registrations are essential. 

Make sure that you stick around for an artist talk chaired by HOLDING SPACE curator Vandana Ram and featuring HOLDING SPACE artists: Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal, Catherine Sarah Young, Azarmidokht Elahi & Kylie Colemane. This is happening after Jade and Ria's performance at 12:30-1:15pm. The artist talk is free however registrations are essential. Register here.

Artist bio - Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal 
Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal is a Javanese Australian director, choreographer, writer and Body–Mind Centering® somatic movement educator whose work traverses contemporary performance, dance theatre and interdisciplinary arts research. Her lineage bridges Australian convict-settler histories with the ceremonial and cosmological lineages of Yogyakarta’s Keraton and the Borobudur temple complex, grounding a practice that moves fluently across cultures, philosophies and embodied knowledge systems.
 
Internationally trained across the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia, Jade holds a Bachelor of Dance (Miami/NYC), a Master of Choreography (VCA), and completed a Darmasiswa Scholarship at Yogyakarta Arts University. Her rigorously articulated methodology integrates improvisation, somatic embodiment and physical dramaturgy, positioning the body as a site of memory, relation and insight. Working at the nexus of authorship, co-creation and interpretation, she develops intercultural works that are both structurally sophisticated and deeply rooted in lived, sensory intelligence.

Jade has collaborated with leading companies and independent artists including Ria Soemardjo, Kirk Page, Bebe Miller, BodyCartography Project, Mirramu Dance Company, Chunky Move, Bangarra, Legs on the Wall, Hermes Ensemble and Marrugeku. These partnerships embed her practice within expansive networks of experimental and intercultural performance.
 
A committed contributor to First Nations partnerships, regional arts leadership, youth dance and community-driven initiatives, Jade plays a significant role in shaping contemporary Asian Australian performance discourse. Her work advances a vision of dance and interdisciplinary art that is inclusive, critically engaged and anchored in embodied, cross-cultural knowledge.
Artist bio - Ria Soemardjo
Ria Soemardjo is a Naarm-based musician, vocalist and interdisciplinary collaborator recognised for her evocative sound worlds and her sustained commitment to intercultural exchange. Of Australian Javanese heritage, her distinct, haunting vocal style reflects a deep engagement with Balinese and Javanese gamelan traditions, while her broader practice draws on an exploratory approach to voice, ritual and site-responsive composition.
Equally at home in contemporary performance, theatre, community ritual and experimental sound practice, Ria creates, records and performs music across Australia and Asia. She collaborates widely with independent choreographers, directors and musicians. Frequently working with long-term creative partners such as Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal to craft sonic environments that interweave voice, frame drums, gamelan textures and her hand-crafted clay flutes and drums.

Ria’s works often arise through embodied research and sensitivity to place, developing contemporary performance rituals that respond to natural or urban sites. Recent projects include Ngayomi (with Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal), excerpted at Marrugeku’s Contested Lands forum (2023); processional commissions for Chinatown and the Mission to Seafarers; the guided audio walks Murmuring Lake and Swallow Walk; and Of Frogs (Darebin FUSE 2022), featuring her sculptural sound-objects.

A sought-after collaborator across dance, theatre, community arts and interdisciplinary practice, Ria brings a distinctive sonic presence to projects that explore cultural memory, ecological attunement and the poetics of listening. Together with her collaborators, she continues to expand the role of music within contemporary Asian Australian performance ecologies.

Women's Art Therapy
Shiva Dadvar

On the 19th of August 2026, artist Shiva Dadvar held her Women's Art Therapy workshop. Through a guided process entangling meditation, sound healing, scribble drawing, watercolour painting, and sharing, Shiva led participants in exploring their connections to land and water. Through this, participants explored grief, migration, motherhood, and hope.

Water symbolises emotions, intuition, adaptability, and the unconscious, while land represents stability, identity, roots, safety, and belonging. Rather than creating literal landscapes, participants were encouraged to explore these elements as symbolic aspects of their inner world.

Artist bio
Shiva Dadvar is an art therapist who works with the use of art as a tool for self-awareness, emotional regulation, and personal growth. She has experience in the field of creative therapeutic approaches and is passionate about creating safe, supportive, and non-judgmental spaces for emotional expression through art.

In her art therapy workshops, Shiva focuses on providing a calm and inspiring environment where participants can connect more deeply with their inner world through the creative process. She believes that art can be a powerful medium for understanding emotions, reducing psychological tension, and enhancing self-awareness.

Her approach integrates art, mindfulness, and creative expression to support individuals in having a meaningful and healing experience through artistic practice.

'Adorning Country' Paperbark
Kylie Colemane

On the 12th of August 2026, artist Kylie Colemane led a group of 22 participants in her 'Adorning Country' Paperbark workshop. Kylie talked about the importance of 'Gurrundurrung' aka Paperbark in Darug cultural practice. Paperbark grows on Darug country and has strong linkages to the health of freshwater and saltwater.

Kylie then showed the participants how to make jewellery using Paperbark, entangling threads, textiles and feathers with it.

Artist bio
Kylie Colemane is a proud Barramadagal woman of the Darug speaking nation, with Wiradjuri connections.

Based on the Mornington Peninsula on Bunurong land for over a decade she has worked with schools, universities, community groups & corporate groups facilitating various workshops.

As a cultural educator, artist & ecotherapist she invites the use of nature elements to improve physical and mental health creating wellness. Creatively bringing nature, art & mindfulness together with a First Nations lens. Focusing on observing, being with & enjoying nature elements.

Currently Kylie is an Indigenous Industry Fellow based at Monash Peninsula campus creating educational resources based around native plants, bushfoods and adding to her published, co-authored papers based on intergenerational learning. Kylie is one of the cohort chosen for the Koorie Heritage Trust Blak Design 2025. Consults on Urban projects around plants & design, has completed public art installations featuring botanical illustrations on Darug country, Sydney. 

Filmmaking
Sivani Yaddanapudi

Filmmaker Sivani Yaddanapudi led four workshops where participants learnt how to create a short collective experimental film on the theme of Rituals of Reciprocity – Land and Water. Through the fundamentals and techniques of filmmaking, participants learnt how to translate personal stories into visual storytelling, creating work that feels authentic, thoughtful, and true to their own perspective. This process was about finding ways to represent themselves, their experiences, and their connection to place through the lens of film in a way that feels honest and empowering. 

On the 9th of July 2026, Sivani led a group of participants from refugee backgrounds including Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Indonesia in her first out of four filmmaking workshops. For the first workshop, participants expressed that they wanted to make films on themes including the oppression of women in Afghanistan, to the poor conditions experienced by refugees in Indonesia, to the hardships of sustaining tertiary education in Sudan amidst war. Participants took turns being behind and in front of the camera. Sivani wove a fun and respectful space which balanced the honouring of storytelling alongside sharing skills and knowledges about filmmaking.

On the 16th & 23rd of July 2026, Sivani led a group of participants from diasporic and refugee backgrounds including Afghanistan, Iran, Sāmoa, and Sudan in her second and third filmmaking workshops. During the workshops, Sivani led a poignant and quietly powerful session of scriptwriting. All participants wanted to write and make films about their wishes that there were no borders, no wars, no oppression; and that all people were treated with respect and dignity and could live in peace. Furthermore, the group learnt about camera techniques and started filming together. Collectively, they decided that the eventual film will be about Seba’s story of her fractured education journey due to fleeing war in Sudan and living in refugee camps before coming to these lands. Watch this space for more info on that.

On the 30th of July 2026, Sivani led a group of participants from diasporic and refugee backgrounds including Afghanistan, China and Sudan in the last of her youth filmmaking workshops. Throughout all of the workshops, Sivani has been facilitating deep learning on all aspects of the filmmaking process from script writing to being in front and behind the camera. In her final workshop, everyone worked on the B roll for their film, which is Saba’s story of her fractured education journey due to war in Sudan. The film is going to be an intimate and poignant mini documentary/interview piece – watch this space for more info on that.

Shoutout to Rodaba Qureshi for translating as well as to Arts & Cultural Exchange (ACE) for the generous use of their space for filming.

Artist bio
Sivani Yaddanapudi (She/Her) is a Sydney-based queer South Asian filmmaker/creative producer living on Darug land. As a filmmaker, her aspirations and intentions are to provide a space for individuals that were historically not listened to. Her works range from cinematography, producing, content creation and workshop facilitation within the community arts sector.

Alimuom—Remembering through Rain
Catherine Sarah Young

On the 15th of July 2026, artist Catherine Sarah Young led a group of participants from diasporic and refugee backgrounds including China, Columbia, India, Lebanon, Malta, Palestine, Philippines, Sri Lanka & Vietnam in her Alimuom–Remembering Through Rain workshop. Catherine shared her research into the significance of scents, and how it is intertwined with memory and our emotional responses. Participants shared childhood photos of themselves as well as key memories associated with rain from first birthings to yearnings for their homelands. Using paper cups and markers, participants then created their own rain gauges and anemometers, drawing and marking down their precious memories.

Catherine will be turning some of the participants’ photos into cyanotypes that she will develop with rainwater collected here in Sydney. This will be showcased as part of the exhibition later this year. Watch this space! 

Artist bio
Dr. Catherine Sarah Young is a Filipino-Chinese interdisciplinary artist, designer, writer, and scholar. With a background in molecular biology, fine art, and interaction design, she cultivates an artscience practice by using scientific experimentation and molecular transformations in her art-making, often relating these to environmental and social issues. Catherine has an international profile, with numerous fellowships, exhibitions, and speaking engagements. She was one of ArtReview Asia’s Future Greats in 2018, a Thirteen Artist Awards recipient in the Philippines in 2021, was listed as one of the 10 Women Leading the Fight against Climate Change by Earth.org in 2024, and is an Obama Leader for Asia-Pacific. Her PhD dissertation is entitled, ‘The Ghost of Rain: Investigating Petrichor as Companion Molecules in the Critical Zones through the Arts’. She is currently a sessional academic in UNSW Sydney School of Art and Design where she mentors Master of Design students on their capstone projects framed around the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Poetry
Fale Tumanu

On the 18th and 25th of June 2026, artist Fale Tumanu led a group of participants from diasporic and refugee backgrounds including the Philippines, Syria, and Vietnam in two poetry workshops. The workshops were intimate and magical. 

For the first workshop, the group went to Parramatta Park where they spent time in nature, noticing their connections to land and water and how this was shaped by their cultural and ancestral knowledges, and then wrote poems capturing what they had noticed.

For the second workshop at Arts & Cultural Exchange (ACE), the group did free journaling in English and their Mother Tongue languages, and shared, and spoke about writing to express grief and rage. Together, they talked about land and water and ancestors – filling their pages with honesty and vulnerability.

Artist bio
Fale Tumanu is a proud Sāmoan word artist, an emerging writer, and theatre performer. She currently resides and creates on Dharawal land. Her work is deeply informed by Fāgogo (traditional storytelling), her cultural lens, as well as exploring the raw, real and mundane realities of the human experience. Fale’s been an active participant in the writing scene, having been shortlisted for her work in the RUSSH Magazine Literary Showcase, mentored by Sweatshop, and is a co-founder of Pacific-led writing collective Tagata Moana Writers.
 
Fale’s writing journey started out as an outlet for her emotions and yet has evolved into short stories, prose and many other poetry forms. When she is away from writing, she enjoys reading, meditating in her garden, and is always on the lookout for the next community event to attend and support.

Collaging
Kirsten Maglalang

On the 11th of June 2026, artist Kirsten Maglalang led a group of participants from diasporic and refugee backgrounds including Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Philippines in a collaging workshop. From experiences of war to their favourite foods, everyone exchanged stories with each other. In English and in their mother tongue languages, letters were written on the back of exquisitely collaged postcards to land and water, counter-archiving yearning for homelands and gratitude for the welcome of these Indigenous lands.

Artist bio
Kirsten Maglalang is an early-career artist based in Western Sydney. Her mixed-media practice reflects her desire to connect with her Filipino heritage with the creation of works that focus on language and cultural material. At the heart of her practice is her passion for exploring the many aspects of love and its transformative powers through collaborative art making.
 
During her time as a Future Culture Arts Worker Intern, she gained valuable experience in multiple areas of arts and cultural work. This great period of knowledge exchange helped her develop skills that align with her deep commitment to shaping a Future Culture that is both equitable and expansive.
 
She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UNSW Art & Design, where her practice in theory continues to motivate her to create art that amplifies human connection, honours memories and finds ways to keep them alive.

Persian Percussion
Sohrab Kolahdooz & Shervin Mirzeinali

On the 28th of May 2026, artists Sohrab Kolahdooz and Shervin Mirzeinali held their Persian Percussion workshop at ACE (Arts & Cultural Exchange). Despite the heavy rain, spirits were high as the musical afternoon unfolded into one of deep connection with each other.

Sohrab and Shervin began the workshop with a collaborative performance. They then led a group of participants from backgrounds including Afghanistan, Assyria, Congo and Iran in playing instruments and using stones to co-create a rhythm together. This rhythm transformed into a piece of music evoking land and water.

Photo credit: Ravyna Jassani + Supplied

Artist bio – Sohrab Kolahdooz
Sohrab Kolahdooz is a Sydney-based percussionist, multidisciplinary artist, and cultural practitioner whose work explores rhythm as ritual, storytelling, and intercultural dialogue. With over 20 years of professional experience, his practice is grounded in Iranian percussion traditions and expands across diverse rhythmic languages from the Middle East, Africa, India, East Asia, and Latin America, which he reinterprets through contemporary and collaborative performance making.

Having performed on more than 300 stages internationally, Sohrab has collaborated with renowned artists and presented work across major venues, festivals, and cultural institutions in Australia and abroad. His performances often sit at the intersection of traditional practice and contemporary experimentation, drawing on ancestral forms, improvisation, and cross-cultural exchange.

Alongside his artistic practice, Sohrab holds a Bachelor of Music and brings extensive experience in music education, workshop facilitation, and arts leadership. He has designed and delivered creative learning programs and community arts initiatives for diverse participants across educational, cultural and public settings. With a parallel background in arts management and program leadership, his broader practice is informed by a commitment to creating meaningful artistic experiences that foster belonging, connection and shared cultural understanding.
 
Artist bio – Shervin Mirzeinali
Shervin Mirzeinali identifies as an Iranian-Australian composer, director, and community-driven artist. His work is deeply rooted in his cultural heritage while exploring new forms of musical expression that bridge traditions, identities, and contemporary sound worlds. He holds a Doctorate in Composition with a focus on spectralism and Iranian Dastgah, and much of his creative research continues to explore how these traditions can be reimagined through a contemporary lens.
He’s especially drawn to rituals—how they hold meaning, memory, and transformation. He likes to dive into them, unpack their layers, and rework them into shared creative experiences. This interest flows through both his solo and collaborative work, from composing award-winning pieces like Panbe Zan, to curating and directing cross-cultural projects. In 2023, he co-founded the Iranian Music Festival in Sydney, which has become a platform for celebrating both traditional and experimental Iranian music. Whether through sound, storytelling, or community engagement, he is interested in how old forms can speak to new contexts, and how creative practice can open space for reflection, connection, and cultural exchange.

Textile
Nicole Barakat

For the first few weeks of her textile workshops for women at SSI, artist Nicole Barakat has been leading a group of women from refugee backgrounds including from Afghanistan, Congo, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine & Syria in her textile workshop series. Held at SSI's Community Refugee Welcome Centre, they have been engaging with eco-dyeing and cyanotype printing with native plants that were gathered on site. Through this, they also engaged in discussions about plants from their own homelands that they eat and use for medicine, as well as exchanged stories with each other in relation to the importance of land, water, and plants.

Watch this space as we will share more updates soon about the rest of Nicole's workshops. Running for women at SSI, her workshops are happening from the 29th of May to 18th of September 2026.

On the 3rd of July 2026, Kumari Abeydeera stepped in to cover Nicole's workshop. At the Community Refugee Welcome Centre, Kumari led a group of women from refugee backgrounds including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Ukraine in an open art session. The session started with a walk by the water, collecting artefacts from nature that inspired us and spoke to our connections with land and water. This resulted in an impactful session, brimful of cross-cultural dialogue and storytelling as the women drew, painted, and collaged together.

Over late July 2026, Nicole led a group of women from refugee backgrounds including from Afghanistan & Iran in her textile workshop series. Held at SSI’s Community Refugee Welcome Centre, the women have been painting by the water, listening deeply and respectfully to messages from unceded Wangal land. They then shared stories about land and water, and used their paintings to inspire their textile art. The group also made some beautiful beaded, appliqué and embroidered artworks.

Photo credit: Vandana Ram

Artist bio
Nicole Barakat is a Kfarsghabi, Lebanese artist living on the lands and waters of the Gadigal. She works with deep listening and intuitive processes with intentions to transform the conditions of everyday life. Her artwork engages unconventional approaches to art-making, creating intricate works that embody the love and patience characteristic of traditional textile practices. Nicole’s practice is rooted in re-membering and re-gathering her ancestral knowing, she works with coffee divination and plants and flower essences for community care.

Nicole is the 2025 recipient of the open award ($50,000) in the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre. Nicole undertook an artist residency in Bethlehem, Palestine in 2010 and was in residence, through Creative Australia, at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France in 2023 where she convened with a 300-year-old Lebanese cedar tree in the Jardin des Plantes.

Nicole completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Craft Arts) in Textiles in 2002 with first class honours at the University of NSW Art & Design.

Ritual
Azardmidokht Elahi

On the 22nd of May 2026, artist Azarmidokht Elahi led a group of women from refugee backgrounds including Afghanistan and Iran in exchanging feelings and stories related to the significance of water and land. The workshop was held at the Community Refugee Welcome Centre.

Through hands-on making, participants crocheted, cut shapes, and worked collectively on handmade paper layered with soil and coconut husk. Using soil, turmeric, and natural pigments, they added the words for 'land' and 'water' in their own languages, creating a shared imagined landscape. Through collective handcraft, we became an echo of what water and land have taught us: resilience, continuity, adaptation, and the flow of life.

Together, the group reflected on how we are part of both water and land. From water, we learn flow, change, and the continuation of life. From the land, we learn resilience, belonging, and endurance. Through conversation and collective art-making, the workshop explored the connections between memory, identity, migration, and our relationship with the natural world.

Photo credit: Vandana Ram

Artist bio
Azarmidokht Elahi is an Iranian-Australian multidisciplinary artivist, educator, and community arts facilitator based in Sydney. She is the founder and creative director of HamAva Women’s Group, a community platform that brings women from diverse cultural backgrounds together through art, dialogue, and collaborative creativity.

With more than 25 solo exhibitions across Iran and Australia, Azarmidokht’s artistic practice explores themes of identity, migration, memory, gender, and human rights. Working across visual arts, installation, and participatory projects, her work creates spaces where personal narratives and collective histories can be expressed, witnessed, and shared.

Her practice is grounded in community engagement and socially responsive art. Through workshops, public programs, and collaborative projects, she works with culturally diverse communities, including migrants, refugees, and women navigating displacement and social change.

Azarmidokht’s work is deeply connected to ideas of belonging, reciprocity, and care. She is particularly interested in how artistic practices can connect people to land, memory, and each other while amplifying voices that are often unheard.

Alongside her artistic practice, she works as a community arts teacher with TAFE NSW, facilitating the Art and Connection course and creative programs that support cultural exchange, empowerment, and social connection.

CREDITS

HOLDING SPACE is funded by the NSW Government through the Multicultural NSW COMPACT Program. Our project collaborators are SSI’s Community Refugee Welcome Centre located at Callan Park, Lilyfield, and Community Partners Sydney Opera House.

The 2026 HOLDING SPACE artists are Ali Rezvani, Aprille Asfoura & Ahmed Elkhalidi, Azarmidokht Elahi, Catherine Sarah Young, Fale Tumanu, Kirsten Maglalang, Kylie Colemane, Nicole Barakat, Rodaba Qureshi, Shiva Dadvar, Sivani Yaddanapudi, Sohrab Kolahdooz & Shervin Mirzeinali, duo: Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal & Ria Soemardjo, and collective: Annabel Hom, Maggie Tra, San May & Sovanarry Chan. Learn more about the artists here.

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Always Was, Always Will Be, Aboriginal Land.

Our office is located on Darug land at Fairfield City HQ. We would like to acknowledge the Cabrogal Clan of the Darug Nation, the traditional custodians of the land. Our work takes us across Darug, Dharawal and Eora lands. Sovereignty was never ceded.