This artist-author duo will present a compelling discussion about living in war, reflecting on their interactions with asylum seekers fleeing conflict and living in Syrian refugee camps.
Within this, award-winning visual artist Ben Quilty will present his new book Home: Drawings by Syrian Children, which collates images of home created by children who have lived among the violence in Syria. These works are marred by the conflict, and represent how war can warp innocent perception.
The book includes a foreword by acclaimed author and journalist Richard Flanagan, who has chronicled the plight of refugees writing for The Guardian. The remaining pages are dedicated to the artworks inspired by Heba, a six-year-old refugee.
Quilty and Flanagan met Herba at a transit station in Serbia, when her family were fleeing Syria. While Flanagan interviewed her parents and others, Quilty entertained the children with coloured pencils and paper. He asked Herba to draw home, and she produced a dark image, with bombs dropping around dead bodies in a broken city.
Both Quilty and Flanagan will share the experiences of Syrian children refugees, reflecting on the role of violence and how art can ignite action and change in this talk presented by the School of Life.
