Hussein Abdirahman Mohamud and Benny Kimutai Rotich joined Vanessa Morris on Banksia to talk about their works presented in powerful exhibiton Through Our Eyes.

Emerging photographer, Hussein, spoke aboutWhat Remains their collection within the exhibition which approaches space as a lived environment rather than a fixed location. It is shaped by people, memory, and everyday use. The project explores community formation and transformation through the Somali experience in Melbourne, concentrating on sites where collective life has taken root since the 1990s.

Filmmaker, videographer and photographer Benny, spoke about Beneath The Surface which sees an accompanying film work for each photography collection and the process of creating along with working with the photographers and co-curators. Benny's work sits at the intersection of community, culture and nature.

Co-curated by Ibukun Oloruntoba and wani toaishara Through Our Eyes brings together photography, film, and community voice and invites audiences into a living archive where African-Australian experiences are neither monolithic nor marginal but richly textured, complex, and foregrounded. It opens new imaginative futures of solidarity, dignity, and joy grounded in lived experience and creative resilience.

It also include photography collections Beautiful Black Boys by Panashe Nathaniel Mugayapi and The Lives of African Australians by Basil Abubaker

An in-conversation with Through Our Eyes artists is on Saturday 21 February

Through Our Eyes is at Blak Dot Gallery until 8 March

Image: What remains, 2026. Courtesy of Hussein Mohamud