Sinead Kennedy is an artist based in Naarm Melbourne, Australia. She explores expanded documentary as a mode of visual storytelling. Her recent work is concerned with the politics of migration and asylum in an Australian context.
Sinead studied a Bachelor of Arts Photography at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She was awarded the Pool Grant 2017, second prize in PHmuseum Women Photographers Grant 2018, and is a selected artist in Parallel Platform cycle 2.
To Set Fire to the Sea explores mandatory and indefinite immigration detention for refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. It is a response to the Australian government’s hysteria around refugees and obsession with border control amidst a global climate of mass displacement, xenophobia and border paranoia.
Taking place in a country with a complicated history of migration, identity and belonging, these are glimpses of the ongoing life and conversation with friends who are being held in the immigration system.
Through a collaboration of text and image, this project attempts to communicate the personal experiences and dehumanising processes of this system’s slow bureaucratic violence.
Website
www.sineadkennedy.netphmuseum.com
