How artist Khaled Sabsabi stays hopeful after recent challenges

By Jade Barker

ABC Arts

Topic:Installation Art

The humble cup of coffee is integral to Khaled Sabsabi's newest work. (ABC News: Jade Barker)

Khaled Sabsabi has one thing on his mind: coffee; specifically Lebanese coffee. And it's not because of the obvious reasons, although the bags under his eyes suggest it could be.

It's been a tiring few months for Sabsabi, as anyone familiar with the controversy surrounding his current history-making double-showing at the Venice Biennale would know.

After being appointed, sacked, then reinstated to represent Australia at the 'Oscars of the art world', Sabsabi is the only Australian artist, and one of only three artists in the event's 131-year history, to present work in both a national pavilion and the biennale's main exhibition.

But that is a topic of conversation that Sabsabi is tired of discussing.

The reason he has coffee on his mind is that it's the central thread, recurring motif and medium for his current exhibition at Vessel Contemporary, in Fremantle.

Memory and art

Between Suns is a major survey, bringing together work from 1998 to 2026, including new and previously unexhibited pieces. It includes Sabsabi's first visual artwork Aajyna, a deeply personal piece which has been recreated specifically for the Vessel venue.

Like much of Sabsabi's work, it is an immersive experience, combining sounds and smell — while viewing the piece visitors are hit with the scent of Lebanese coffee. Sabsabi is aware of the power of the olfactory to reignite memories.

"This is pretty much the only childhood memory work I've ever created in my creative practice," Sabsabi tells ABC Arts.

He's overcome with emotion as he retells the memory of seeking shelter in makeshift bunkers as a child during Lebanon's civil war and of sniper bullets whizzing past his head in the moments in between.

But he also says it conjures joyful memories of his mother reading the fortunes of other women in the residue of their coffee cups after they migrated to Western Sydney.

"I'm interested in memory and how humans can recreate memory and even essentially change memory in a very subtle way," Sabsabi explains.

The original work was "lost with time" and recreated again in 2021 for the Campbelltown Arts Centre. Now, coffee drips from walls of an aptly bunker-like structure on the side of the main Vessel building.

"The use of the medium of coffee — it was like reconnecting with an old friend that you haven't seen for 20 years," Sabsabi says.

It doesn't hurt that he is also partial to a cup or two of Lebanese coffee, enjoying the taste of the dark roast as much as the ritualistic aspect of making it.

"You can't go to Khaled's studio without being force-fed coffee," exhibition curator Mikala Tai says.

Khaled Sabsabi and exhibition curator Mikala Tai. (Supplied: Ebony Vukelic)

Coffee also features in the titular works Between Suns C and Between Suns D, one of which is a 3-metre mural Sabsabi created in sections in his Western Sydney studio, a converted garage.

He only saw the canvas in its entirety for the first time when it was hung in Fremantle. It's the first time the pieces have been exhibited, although they were created in 2024.

"The way I work, I work in a continuum. So for me as a living artist or a living human being, I think as I progress or regress, learn or unlearn, I have the capacity to go back and revisit work," Sabsabi explains.

Like the first work visitors are greeted with upon entering Vessel, called Knowing Beyond, also made using coffee, the Between Suns works nod to duality, imagination and mysticism — recurring concepts in Sabsabi's work.

"It's the third space that I'm interested in, the idea of the yet to be imagined, yet to be defined space. Where that comes from, whether you say spirituality or inspiration, it's all interconnected," he says.

Khaled Sabsabi's latest exhibition is inspired by memory and his love for coffee. (ABC News: Jade Barker)

All the way west

Western Australia already held a special place in Sabsabi's heart — his first ever exhibition took place at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2005 as part of the Hatched National Graduate Show.

The gallery then held his first solo show in 2018 and the Art Gallery of Western Australia holds one of his works in its collection.

"WA takes a lot more risks, creative risks, than it's given credit for and it's experimental and it's open to new things," Tai says.

"It's the way WA reaches out and forms connections through art; it's different to everywhere else in the country and I think Khaled has benefited from that. Even though he is Western Sydney's artistic poster boy now, it was only built from recognition from WA and also from South Australia," she elaborates.

The Lebanese Australian artist, controversially dropped then reinstated to represent Australia at the biennale, brings two installations to the 'Olympics of the art world'.

Another recurring theme that runs through Sabsabi's work is hope and optimism. Does he still feel hopeful in the face of a tumultuous global political climate and after everything he's gone through in his professional life over the past 18 months?

"I mean, the past year or year and a half has had quite a heavy impact. But to have the people at Vessel reach out to me and say, 'look, we believe in your work, we value your work, and we respect your work …'", he trails off.

"In that moment where everything was rescinded, it felt like his career was collapsing, like that people wouldn't touch him, that opportunities were going to dry up and his ability to be able to even provide for his family was going to be challenged. So to have this invitation from Vessel, it made him feel that he could still be seen for his work and who he was," Tai says.

In the wake of what happened with Sabsabi's appointment to represent Australia at Venice, Tai resigned from her role at Creative Australia.

They had never worked directly together before but now she describes them as having a unique bond and "innately trusting each other".

Now his confidence has been restored Tai thinks the world is Sabsabi's oyster.

"I think as an artist that if he had been working in Europe or in Asia, he would have had this kind of recognition that he has now much earlier in his career," she says.

"I'm excited for him to actually be recognised beyond everything that's just happened in the last year, but back to being about his art and what he's proposing as a form of coexistence and shared futures."

Sabsabi is also excited for the spotlight to be back on his work. After doing a cathartic clear-out of his studio in Sydney when he returned from Venice, he has a new 10-metre artwork in progress and is keen to get back to it.

He lives by the concepts he explores in his work — from his deep love of coffee, to his ever-evolving exploration of spirituality and Sufism, to his optimism.

"I mean if we don't have hope then why do we get out of bed? It's as simple as that, so we're always gonna have hope."

Between Suns is at the Vessel Contemporary, Fremantle until September 20.

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