Untitled #01 (from the series Code Black/Riot), 2024

‘Code Black/Riot is a collaboration with a group of young First Nations people in far north Queensland that interrogates a system that targets and imprisons them from the age of 10. This portrait is from the still-photo component of the larger project. Participants were invited to have their portraits taken, using a means of their own choosing to conceal their identities while making a personal statement. Some of them chose flowers or bubbles. Others a flag, mask or face paint. The three girls here chose this gesture. Many young people in this community prefer to conceal their faces in their photos to avoid being identified by the youth justice system. The result is that many families do not have photos of their children if they lose them. The project was facilitated by Youth Empowered Towards Independence in Cairns and Change the Record in Sydney.’

Hoda Afshar is a Naarm/Melbourne-based visual artist and documentary maker whose practice focuses on the intricate relationships between politics and aesthetics, knowledge and representation, visibility and violence.