MCA Australia launches C3West 2022 Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook by Artist Cherine Fahd

MCA Australia launches C3West 2022 Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook by Artist Cherine Fahd
Sydney, 4 August 2022], The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in partnership with Parramatta Artists’ Studios have launched this year’s C3West project Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook. Presented in Parramatta’s Centenary Square, this large-scale photographic installation runs until 3 October.  

In 2022, C3West artist Cherine Fahd celebrates Parramatta and its people through photography and performance. Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook uses the common experience of group portraiture and school photography to create moments that reflect Parramatta’s diverse communities during a period of unprecedented urban development and in a time when city’s streets and spaces have sprung back with activity in the post-lockdown period.

Between November 2021 and July 2022, Fahd made portraits of people at various locations in Parramatta’s CBD. Setting up a makeshift studio to create portraits of the people who live, work and play in Parramatta. The project has resulted in capturing hundreds of portraits of people from all walks of life in Western Sydney, revealing the interactions between artist and sitter, the connections between people and their relationships to the urban landscape as we all learn to reorient and readjust ourselves in the pandemic era.

Artist Cherine Fahd said, “The Yearbook is a record of a people and a place at a particular time. The time is COVID-19, the place is the City of Parramatta. While people stirred within the city of Parramatta’s numerous construction projects, with new buildings emerging and not so old ones dissolving, local people came willing to talk and pose against the backdrop of scaffolds, cranes and abseiling window cleaners.

Parramatta Yearbook shows you the moments leading up to, during and after a portrait is made. An assortment of cut-up images, bright colours and kindergarten shapes reveal the outtakes and minutiae.”

The public exhibition is accompanied by a printed edition of the Yearbook capturing the hundreds of portraits and the personas of Parramatta community members. This book can also be accessed digitally on the MCA website, with video behind the scenes footage.

MCA Australia Curator of C3West, Pedro de Almeida said, “C3West places contemporary artists at the core of the project with the belief that they can bring unique value and community voice to situations beyond the gallery context. Artist Cherine Fahd has brought her humour and empathy to this year’s project Being Together: Parramatta Years and engaged with Parramatta’s diverse communities. The result is a special kind of public yearbook that recognises many of the individuals that shape Parramatta’s identity and celebrates the connections shared between them.”

Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook is C3West’s first partnership project with Parramatta Artists’ Studios, an initiative of the City of Parramatta and the energetic home for creative production in Western Sydney that supports artists’ practices and careers.

City of Parramatta Lord Mayor Cr Donna Davis said, “This artwork is a wonderful representation of our city and its people at a significant moment in time – not only in terms of the pandemic, but also with respect to the physical transformation of the CBD. This extraordinary collection of photographic portraits captures the diversity of those who live and visit here, as well as their connections with each other and the city itself.”

Free Events: 

Opening celebration, Saturday 13 August, 11am – 12pm, Centenary Square, Parramatta
Join artist Cherine Fahd, City of Parramatta Lord Mayor Cr Donna Davis, and Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Suzanne Cotter, to celebrate the opening of Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook. Acknowledgment of Country by Uncle Chris Tobin

Parramatta Yearbook photo walk, Saturday 17 September, 3pm – 5pm, starts at Centenary Square, Parramatta  
What do you love about Parramatta? Photo enthusiasts are invited to be led along a tailored photo walk by artist and photographer Dorcas Tang. Whether armed with your mobile phone, a DSLR, or a film camera, you will capture your own Parramatta Yearbook photos whilst learning key street photography principles. Places are limited. Registrations essential, the link is here.

Book launch, Saturday 1 October, 11am – 12pm. PHIVE, 5 Parramatta Square 
Join artist Cherine Fahd; Eda Gunaydin, essayist and contributor; Pedro de Almeida, Senior Curator C3West, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; and Hayley Megan French, Curator and Artist Development, Parramatta Artists’ Studios, as they unpack some of the themes and stories behind the portraits in Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook. Limited free copies of the Yearbook will be available.

Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook is produced and presented by C3West on behalf of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in partnership with Parramatta Artists’ Studios, an initiative of the City of Parramatta.  C3West is a key initiative of MCA Australia to take artists beyond the gallery to create new contemporary art projects with communities and businesses in Western Sydney.   

About the Artist

Cherine Fahd is one of Australia’s leading photogrpahic artists. For over twenty years she has exhibited, written and curated works that focus on photography and video performance. Her projects often incorporate members of the public as well as her immediate family, friends and community. Concentrating on portraiture, as a cultural and social practice, Being Together: Parramatta Yearbook draws on photography as a tools t bring people and communities together. Fahd’s work has been commissioned by major cultural institutions in Australia including Sydney Opera House, Carriageworks, Performance Space and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She is  also an educator and Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.
MEDIA CONTACT
Charlotte Greig, MCA PR Manager
E: Charlotte.greig@mca.com.au | M: +61 404 111 919 | T: 02 9245 2417
About the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA)
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) is Australia’s leading contemporary art museum dedicated to exhibiting, collecting, and interpreting the work of living artists. The MCA is located on one of the world’s most spectacular sites on the edge of Sydney Harbour at Tallawoladah, on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. The Museum presents exhibitions and learning programs that engage a broad and diverse public. The MCA Collection contains over 4500 works with a sustained commitment to works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.

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