Photographs by Wyndham artist Ammar Yonis have been selected for an art project which explores the experience of Australia’s multicultural communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yonis is one of five artists whose work features in the online exhibition Heartlands 2020: Stories from the inside.
The exhibition, presented by migrant and refugee settlement agency AMES Australia, includes works from artists who originally hail from Bosnia, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
Yonis, a first-generation Harari-Australian, is studying engineering.
He said that when he is not busy with his university work, he explores his creativity through mediums such as photography.
He believes that art promotes understanding between people.
“The main inspiration for my work is my family and friends and my environment,” he said.
“For the Heartlands project I wanted to create something that was reflective of my time in isolation during the COVID crisis.
“For the last six months or so I have felt very local, my world has become smaller.
“So, I have tried to explore the spaces around me, finding new bike tracks of lookouts I’ve never seen before.
“For this photo series what I’ve put together is very local, very suburbia. I hope people like it.”
Younis has previously had his artwork exhibited at the Albert St Gallery, the Islamic Museum of Australia and as part of the Multicultural Arts Victoria Shelter Commissions Program.
Details: heartlands.ames.net.au/
