Against the time

Against the Time’ was a physical endurance performance in response to the lockdown was staged by multidisciplinary visual artist Sha Sarwari in his home backyard on Wurundjeri land (Bundoora) Victoria. The performance is an embodiment of what we experienced during Covid_19 lockdown, where most of us were limited to our houses and some of us were separated from our family and relatives due to worldwide travel restrictions, Sha was one of those people who was separated from his family for almost four months.

In this performance Sha walked for two hours nonstop on a continuous line that goes against the clock marking an outline of a heart symbol, Sha repeated the performance every morning for a month in his backyard lawn. For Sha the performance was an act of rendering his thoughts, emotion and bodily experience in the space in the wake of Covid_19. He says, “The performance is an embodiment of our current time, restlessness, patience, care, hope and resilience” the month-long daily performances was broadcasted live via Facebook from seven to nine pm every morning, the live performance was aimed to raise vital funds for asylum seekers through the ASRC website raising $3758.1, by doing Pairing his performance to raise fund through ASRC platform Sha was also aiming to raise awareness regarding the condition of refugees and asylum seekers locked up both on shore and of shore for years waiting in limbo.