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The entrance to Paradise lies at your mother's hands
Lara Chamas

Lara Chamas, The entrance to Paradise lies at your mother's hands, 2021, installation at Gertrude Contemporary. Photo: Machiko Abe
Lara Chamas, The entrance to Paradise lies at your mother's hands, 2021, installation at Gertrude Contemporary. Photo: Machiko Abe

6 February -
28 March 2021

Gertrude Contemporary

21-31 High Street, Preston South

Opening: Friday 5 February 2021, 6—8pm

Derived from a quote from The Prophet Muhammad, the title of this exhibition strikes out feet and replaces it with hands. Hands allude to the mother’s agency, what she creates, gives, passes on, feeds you with, that’s where heaven lies. This exhibition focuses on the Matriarchs of the artists family lineage, their lives and stories, ultimately, shaping the artists own situation of herself in this timeline. Storytelling features the primary tool of knowledge sharing, passing down recipes, pain, memories.

This exhibition aims to tell a story, and each object flows on to another in a constellation. Featured are semiotic and semantic disruption of visual language and lexicon, splicing the two together to illustrate the ambivalence and juxtaposition between love and war, nurturing and violence, and nourishment and destruction of the body, so prevalent in the Middle East.


Lara Chamas is a first-generation Australian-Lebanese artist, based in Melbourne. Her practice investigates topics of postcolonial and migrant narratives, specifically within the context of her cultural identity. Fleeing from civil war, her parents migrated to Australia, where she was born. Her practice explores this in relation to contemporary Australian and global society, and current political issues, such as; colonialism, refugees, racism, otherness, stigma, language, Islamophobia, terrorism and power relations within society. Currently completing a masters by research in fine art at Monash University, central to her research is the expansion on these notions in a more historical and anthropological sense. With discussing geopolitical issues, research and first-hand experience is important to the genuinity of her work. Middle Eastern historical and cultural comparatives provide a surprising amount of relativity and perspective into contemporary Australian culture as experienced
by the artist.

Download exhibition roomsheet HERE

Artists

  • Lara Chamas
Public Program

Artist Talk: Lara Chamas

Artist TalkFriday 19 March, 5amGertrude Contemporary

Join artist Lara Chamas as she discusses her current exhibition The entrance to Paradise lies at your mother's hands.

Read More

Lara Chamas' exhibition is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.

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Gertrude Contemporary

Wurundjeri Country
21-31 High Street
Preston South VIC
Melbourne, Australia

Opening hours:
Tuesday–Sunday 11am–5pm

Gertrude Glasshouse

Wurundjeri Country
44 Glasshouse Road
Collingwood VIC
Melbourne, Australia

Opening hours:
Thursday–Saturday 12–5pm