About the exhibition
Isle of Refuge brought together a group of prominent Australian visual artists who, through their personal histories, ethics and politics, shared a special sense of solidarity with refugees in detention in Australia and in Australian camps in the South Pacific.

This group comprised artists who came to Australia as refugees; those who were children of refugees, émigrés and migrants; and a number of artists, both professional and non-professional, who had been or were being detained in Villawood Detention Centre.

Rather than attempting to define a universal refugee experience, the curators of Isle of Refuge set out to explore the multifarious ways in which these refugee and émigré artists have made themselves ‘at home’ in Australia.

Isle of Refuge explored issues of nationalism, migration, hybridity and interculturality, as well as the representation of ‘otherness’ in relation to ideas of multiculturalism. The participating artists explored Australia as a place from which to actively question the official constructions of national identity, culture and history, in both host and home countries, as well as related issues of social exclusion, status and identity, safety and legitimacy.

Public Programs:
Floor talk, Saturday 17 July

MUMA Online Exhibition Archive
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^{Image: Tim Johnson and Karma Phuntsok, Refuge Painting 2003 (detail), dimensions unknown. Courtesy of the artists and Mori Gallery, Sydney}