Aseel Tayah has been making art for more than half her life. As a child living in occupied Palestine, it became a tool to express feelings of loss and frustration. She would go on to study visual art and photography at Beit Berl College in Israel, where she was the only Palestinian, and the only Arabic-speaking student in her class.
Tayah moved to Australia 10 years ago, to live with her Syria-born husband. Now 36 and based in Melbourne, her work is currently focused on large-scale and collaborative works that share stories about Palestinian life, culture and history – and when we speak over Zoom, she is busy rehearsing and preparing for A’amar, her forthcoming immersive theatre work for the Sydney festival; as well as a series of storytelling events at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, titled Untold Palestine.
