Toni Hassan is an emerging interdisciplinary social practice artist working for social change through the visual arts, facilitation and writing.
I make narratively-driven work that tries to make sense of personal and collective experiences and histories, beginning with the self. In my drawing, painting, digital and installation work I investigate power relations, culture (myth, ritual and patterns of human relating) and nature. I experiment with the processes of making art as commentary and move restlessly between diverse approaches and materials. My recent Honours body of work explored environmental grief in the wake of Australia’s visceral Black Summer. I asked myself ‘How can I make visual art that bears witness, and engages my grief in ways that could be cathartic?’ The research fed a dialogic project: Conversation Pieces: Remembering Australia’s Black Summer and a collaborative public performance.
