Isobel Parker Philip

Hoda Afshar : A curve is a broken line traces the career of one of Australia's most innovative and unflinching photomedia artists. Iranian-born, Melbourne-based Hoda Afshar explores the politics of image-making, amplifying both its ethical and emotive impact. Afshar's photographs ask us to pay attention to what has been hidden from view, compelling us to contend with injustice and brutality not through blunt imagery but through subtle evocation.
Published in association with the eponymous exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, this richly illustrated book includes photographs from across Afshar's career, including the moving portrait of her homeland In the exodus, Ilove you more 2014—, her iconic series Remain 2018 and the debut of In turn 2023, a body of work commissioned for the exhibition. Afshar's captivating images are accompanied by new writing by curator Isobel Parker Philip alongside Elyas Alavi, Hala Alyan, Behrouz Boochani, Taous Dahmani, Shahram Khosravi, Sarah Sentilles and Snack Syndicate (Andrew Brooks and Astrid Lorange).
Together, they reckon with Afshar's work as a form of activism as much as an artistic inquiry, and consider the way she expands the poetic potential of empathy.