Meet Leila Frijat
Photography by MyTiger Productions
Leila Frijat (b. 1997, Meanjin) is a multidisciplinary artist and illustrator who resides and practices in Gadigal Country. She was recently awarded second place in fortyfivedownstairs’ galleries ‘Emerging Artist Award’ for work developed during her residency at the Gorman and Ainslie Arts Centres, ACT. She has been commissioned by Blacktown City Council, WOTSO Coworking spaces, and Westpoint Shopping Centre to create several public art works involving community consultation. Exhibitions of Leila’s work have been held at FortyFiveDownstairs Gallery, Gaffa Gallery, Comber Street Gallery, and Pari. Her work has been reviewed in publications including Artshub and Framework.
Leila Frijat was mentored by Freda Chiu and created a bilingual Arabic-English leporello.
“The MIRROR Mentorship Program would be instrumental in bringing my ‘Lune’ project to life. With dedicated time and expert guidance, this mentorship would enable me to dedicate a specific amount of time to the book, with external mentorship to help me work through creative roadblocks and broaden the themes and narrative of the story. I would like to develop a strong visual language for the book to create an immersive imaginative world that evokes emotions while reading. By the end of this mentorship, I would like to have achieved one major draft and revision of the project including preliminary reviews of the book by Arabic and non-Arabic-speaking children and parents. Completing the first significant draft, I am confident that the momentum generated from this mentorship will carry me through the curation and refinement stages of the project.”
“I chose Yallah Kazdura as both the language and thematic focus of my leporello to encourage a pause in the pace of everyday life. The phrase itself captures a sense of playful invitation. The leporello format, with its extended, unfolding pages, allowed me to visually and narratively stretch these moments of pause. I chose to orient the story from right to left prioritised Arabic, while creating a dynamic tension with English text. This challenged me to consider how the two languages interact, whether they function in tandem or if one takes precedence.”
The MIRROR Mentorship program is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia.