A Journey of Resilience: The Return of ‘Suffering and Hope’
Featuring the Private Collection of Mr. Jackson Lay
Palm Springs Hotel is honored to host a landmark exhibition of deep historical and emotional significance for Timor-Leste. This collection, acquired by our owner Mr. Jackson Lay, represents a unique collaboration born during our nation’s most difficult days.
The Story Behind the Art
The Suffering and Hope of East Timor. An artwork created in 1999 in Darwin at Karen Brown Gallery
The concept for the Darwin East Timor art project began as an initiative of Karen Brown Gallery emerging from the post-election crisis in East Timor and amid the influx of refugees and evacuees to Darwin during September 1999
A discussion between Karen Brown and UNAMET human rights officer John Bevan became the starting point for the project to become a reality. John Bevan indicated his support and the project officially began.
The Darwin - East Timor art project developed as a gesture of welcome from the Karen Brown Gallery to the impouring of visitors to Darwin including East Timorese refugees United Nations staff and many other organisations at a time when artists from around Australia were also visiting to attend the National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Art Award. It was envisaged that through the nature of our artistic expression and collaboration refugees and evacuees may find an outlet for their emotions and ideas while other participants might express their support and welcome.
As people arrived to begin the project, they were given small wooden panels measuring 200 by 200 millimetres. Each participant was free to paint whatever they felt on these small tiles which would later be joined together to form a larger work: essentially a mosaic of images united. 150 paintings were contributed and joined into six large panels in turn joined together to form the body of work. Over 50 people including East Timorese children, families, UN staff, official visitors and Darwin artists were working on the project.
Through an openness and willingness for all involved for exploration and artistic expression the art project emerged. It represented collaboration, expression and renewal. The interaction of all these participants became an artistic forum for expression of emotions and images. Through those images in paint, the pain and suffering of East Timor is represented alongside symbols of hope and solidarity. The result is a unified image – the representation of many pictures expressing not only the feelings, experiences and horrors emerging from East Timor sufferance but also the dialogue between these images as they stand together a symbol of solidarity and hope for the future.