Khaled Sabsabi says Creative Australia decision was ‘kneejerk' reaction that is ‘dismantling' his career

The Guardian

01-04-2025

Lebanese Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi has blamed Creative Australia for the 'dismantling' of his career and said the board's decision to revoke his appointment as Australia's Venice Biennale representative has given the green light for others to smear his reputation.
In his first interview since being dumped from the prestigious art exhibition in February and just days after Monash University 'indefinitely postponed' another exhibition he was due to take part in, Sabsabi told Guardian Australia the board's 'kneejerk' reaction has affected his emotional and physical wellbeing, family and career.
'Nobody should have to go through this torture,' he said.
'It's unfair and it's put on by Creative Australia and those people that made that decision … essentially gave the go-ahead to define me as somebody who I am not.
'It's actually dismantling my career, but also more broadly, anyone else's career who may possibly engage with critically towards a political position or a political opinion.'
Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino, an experienced curator, were last year chosen as the winning team from dozens of applicants in an open call process to showcase a new work at the Australia Pavilion in Venice in 2026.
Just days after their selection was made public in February and following negative media and political commentary about two of Sabsabi's historical artworks, Creative Australia's board rescinded their contract saying it wanted to avoid a 'prolonged and divisive debate'.
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Sabsabi said the rushed move left the pair in 'shock and disbelief' and the board should have done more to protect them against 'misinformation' surrounding his artistic vision and practice.
'When the decision was made, I went through a period of three weeks, I was having nightmares, I couldn't sleep,' he said.
Responding to the furore over his back catalogue, Sabsabi said the artworks had been taken out of context by journalists and politicians and said Liberal senator Claire Chandler's claims that he was promoting terrorism, antisemitism and glorifying violence were 'disgusting'.
'It really infuriated me to actually read how people were misrepresenting my works,' he said.
'Those works were viewed by over 80,000 people collectively and not one criticism or complaint from the public.'
Sabsabi said he does 'not support or endorse any form of terrorism or racism or antisemitism or Islamophobia'.
'I'm a Sufi or tasawwuf follower … where you prioritise humanity over organised religions,' he said.
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Sabsabi said Thank you very much – his 2006 work which used archival footage of the 9/11 attacks alongside a clip of George Bush saying 'thank you very much' – was made the same year the former president admitted US troops had not found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq while Sabsabi was working as a settlement worker supporting Iraqi refugees in western Sydney.
'It [was] made 20 years ago and it's a critique of the brutalisation and the savageness of war,' he said.
'If people actually watch the 18-second video work, they will realise when those images of the horrific terrorist attack that was taking place … they'll hear screams of torment and torture.
'It looked at the power of media and how media can be used as a form of propaganda … that changed the way we see the world, the way we stereotype Muslims.'
Similarly, he said the artwork You (2007), which is held in the MCA's collection and included footage of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declaring 'divine victory' in an address after the 34-day Lebanon-Israel war, was also stripped of necessary context.
He said the artwork was made as he grappled with the scale of destruction caused to his birth country and the artwork was designed to have been viewed alongside a companion artwork which contained Quranic calligraphy.
'The idea was you walk into this space, into this experience, and you were physically put in a position: do I go to the right or do I go to the left?'
'So these are the sort of provocations that are instilled in my work.'
Creative Australia did not respond to detailed questions from Guardian Australia about the impact its decision has had on Sabsabi's career, but referred to comments made by its CEO, Adrian Collette, at Senate estimates last month that the decision to remove Sabsabi and Dagostino was 'not a reflection on the artistic team recommended for Venice'.
Sabsabi and Dagostino last week launched a public fundraising campaign to support their efforts to independently exhibit their proposed exhibition at Venice, if efforts to have them reinstated fail.
'This particular work is so important because it looks at Abrahamic religions and commonalities across those as well,' he said.
The pair said their planned work will explore themes of identity, migration and resilience.