Bernard Appassamy
I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia. I pay my respect to the Gadigal of the Eora Nation on whose land I live, and to the past, present and emerging Elders.
With a BA Design from the Sydney College of the Arts, I previously worked as a corporate graphic designer, teacher at the Long Bay Correctional Complex, and bilingual health care coordinator with patients from New Caledonia. I have developed a practice exploring the idea of sacredness in a secular society, and those secular professions that touch our lives at key moments between birth and death. I also explore themes of belonging, family and Catholicism, and memories about Mauritius where I grew up. I source mementos that capture such stories, and then assemble them into a sculptural artist’s book or a photographic print. My short stories are published mostly in Eureka Street.
Over the years, my list of acknowledgements has started to look like the Academy Awards. It became clear I would not see through my long-term, painstaking projects if it wasn't for the support of many. Of those, I especially thank Michael Mullins and my friends from The Sydney BAG (Book Art Group).
Bernard
'What kind of new world do you dream of?'.
'A world where there would be a radical experience of empathy. Where we would be able to feel touched and moved by lives that are not only not our own but are completely foreign to ours'.
Alice Zeniter on 'La Grande Librairie'.