Relationships to land and the endurance of ritual and belief are central to the work of Justine Youssef, whose auto-ethnographic films and installations reflect upon the impacts of displacement through forced migration, and consider our complicity in the reproduction of these conditions.
Supported by Creative Australia’s VACS Major Commissioning Fund and co-commissioned by UTS Gallery, the Institute of Modern Art and Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, Justine Youssef’s solo exhibition Somewhat Eternal (2023) takes form as a multi-sensory installation.
Drawing on familial narratives, Somewhat Eternal expands to consider how states of refuge can uphold cycles of dispossession. Through the maintenance and documentation of inherited practices, Youssef prompts a search for hope. Within acts of preservation, fragmented and altered across geographies, lies a belief in futurity and the alternatives it can offer us.
About the artist
Gallery directions
UTS Gallery
Level 4, Peter Johnson Building (Building 6)
702 Harris St, Ultimo,
University of Technology, Sydney
Touring dates
Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane: 27 January – 6 April 2024
Adelaide Contemporary Experimental: 31 August– 19 October 2024
Somewhat Eternal is a co-commission by Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, the Institute of Modern Art, and UTS Gallery & Art Collection. This project is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts' Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy (VACS) Major Commissioning Projects fund and by the Gordon Darling Foundation. The National Art School supports the practice of academic staff and is proud to support Justine Youssef’s exhibition as part of the Academic Staff Development Grant Program.
Banner image: Justine Youssef, Somewhat Eternal (2023), three channel video (still), 11 minutes. Courtesy the artist.
Related event
Exhibition Opening
tHURSDAY 5 october 2023
6pm - 8pm
Join us to celebrate the launch of Justine Youssef Somewhat Eternal.
Related event
Workshop: Each time it breaks, my heart opens more
saturday 11 november 2023
11am - 1pm
A workshop with Justine Youssef and Gianna Christella Hayes.
PRESS FOR ‘Somewhat eternal’
Art Guide Australia,
Justine Youssef evokes the scent of history.