I painted 19th Of July to tell my own story about trying to seek asylum in Australia. Instead of finding safety, I was faced with the 19 July 2013 policy which stripped me of hope and left me in limbo: I was told “You will never make Australia home.”
In this painting the only thing depicted in the style of realism is the ocean. Everything that I experienced during my six-year journey was based on lies, but the ocean was real and symbolic.
The fences on both sides of the ocean show a woman stuck behind the bars watching the ocean. The sun is reflected in her eyes and in front of her face. The anchor has broken her heart, she has been stopped at an unexpected and unknown location.
The hands that reach for the sun—a symbol of warmth and the imagined freedom associated with Australia—are coming out from the ocean. Instead of reaching the sun people are drowning in the ocean.
The fire behind the fences spirals as it gets closer to the woman who is becoming more alone and isolated… until she sets herself on fire.
The woman imagines making a fire, while the brightness of the sun represents the hope that still remains; this stops her from making fire. In front of her face is an angry man who created the 19 July policy. His hostile face and his compressed teeth represent how much he hates the woman because she is seeking asylum. The 19th of July is the worst day for the people incarcerated in Nauru.