In-Conversation: Natalie Sasi Organ & Elyas Alavi
About the event
Join us for a special conversation with visiting Thai artist Natalie Sasi Organ and Melbourne-based artist Elyas Alavi, recipients of the 2026 Debra Porch Award, moderated by Catherine Woolley, UNSW Galleries Curatorial & Public Engagement Officer. The Debra Porch Award is a three-year partnership between Creative Australia, UNSW Galleries, and SAC Gallery, Bangkok. Established in honour of the life and work of artist and academic Debra Porch, it supports artists in pursuing long-term engagement through international residencies and strengthening strong intercultural connections across the Asia Pacific region. — Natalie Sasi Organ is an artist whose practice explores fragmented histories, cultural hybridity, and the complexities of identity, memory, and belonging. Drawing on archival materials, family histories, and speculative narratives, she creates composite worlds that traverse generations and geographies, examining migration, displacement, and assimilation while challenging dominant Eurocentric histories. Through processes of recollection, recontextualisation, and reclamation, Sasi Organ uncovers overlooked ancestral knowledge and the shifting ambiguities of personal and collective memory. Elyas Alavi is a multidisciplinary artist, poet, and writer whose practice examines displacement, memory, gender, and sexuality through painting, installation, performance, and text. Born in Afghanistan and based in Naarm/Melbourne, Alavi explores the intersections of migration, settler colonialism, and the movement of Black and Brown bodies, often focusing on histories and contemporary realities across the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region. His work reflects on personal and collective experiences of belonging, resilience, and cultural identity while engaging with broader questions of social and political transformation.
