Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture
Date: 19 May 2026 Author: Toni Hassan
Author, columnist and broadcaster, Virginia Haussegger, formally opened a new exhibition in The Chapel at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Charles Sturt University, on Wednesday 6 May 2026 to an enthusiastic and receptive crowd. Artists Kati Görgényi, John Pratt, Toni Hassan and Ujala Aftab came together to make work for the exhibition called BEYOND.
The exhibition offers multimedia work, often combining text with visual imagery. The artists are grappling with the distress and speed of environmental and political change. Newspapers are a common material that symbolises the world.
Haussegger engaged the artists in a Q&A session in which she noted her own sense of overwhelm at the pace of change and with it, harrowing news. She and others registered the value of art for catharsis. The opening felt like both a lamentation and celebration, featuring singers from A Chorus of Women.
Patrons stayed for conversation well after the formal proceedings to share their insights and perspectives on complex themes and the different ways artists engage with material.
“Engrossing”, said one person. “I feel a great relief in seeing the grief and despair in these artworks. I feel heartened to make in response to this work and world.” ‘Beautiful, provocative and inspiring,” said another.
Reflecting on her multimedia work, Kati Görgényi said, "I found myself in long periods of avoidance, when I just could not bear seeing and hearing about the state of the world, destruction from all directions and the way people in power present themselves, and how the media reports. I began playing with newspapers - altering the material, making sculpture, painting with an encaustic (hot wax) medium and found it satisfying.
Graphic artist and distinguished printmaker John Pratt said, "My work has been playing with the juxtaposition of natural elements, digital codes and media as a way of exploring the impact of technology on the way we understand our place in the world. Barcodes and Data Flow seem at odds with our connection and instinctual understanding of the natural world around us and juxtaposing these elements questions the credibility that we endow in this technology."
Visual artist and award-winning writer Toni Hassan (who used to work with Haussegger at the ABC, and is also an adjunct scholar with the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture and newly appointed Editor of Eremos Magazine) contributed pastel work on newspaper, lino-cuts and a range of small and large pencil drawings on paper. "Drawing became an accessible way to make sense of things, frame history and my place in it. Coloured pencil became a humble material, and mark making felt intuitive and allowed for a kind of meditation," she said.
A further review of the exhibition can be found here.
BEYOND is on now at Canberra campus of Charles Sturt University till May 23. Opening hours are 11 to 5pm weekdays, 1-4 weekends. Entry is free.
