Drawing on Turner: Liminal engagements between artists, advocates and refugees in regional Western Australia

Abstract

Early in 2005 a collection of art works by members of the community of the “Great Southern” region of Western Australia was displayed in an art exhibition entitled “Liminal”. This paper explores the process of the development of the concept of liminality for the exhibition, with a particular focus on the ways in which members of a local Afghan Hazara community and members of the mainstream community, who advocate on their behalf, were encouraged to participate. It returns to the original anthropological concept of liminality, as developed by Victor Turner, to help understand the artists’ framing of the connection between them and the Afghan asylum seekers as characters who are in some ways ‘liminal,’ on the margins of the mainstream. Using the case study of the art exhibition as an example, we argue for a core/periphery dynamism which produces a creative potential within rural communities, enabling them to challenge the norms of mainstream Australia.