Shoufay Derz has been invited to exhibit as part of the group show Lucky? at the Bundoora Homestead Art Centre. Bundoora Homestead Art Centre is the public art gallery for the City of Darebin, Victoria, hosting contemporary visual arts and craft exhibitions, a public education program including artist talks, workshops and events, and the biennial Darebin Art Prize.

Lucky? explores the history and effects of gold-mining and the pursuit of wealth in Australia through a contemporary lens. Co-curated by Sophia Cai and Claire Watson, the exhibition brings together a range of works that speak to issues of exploitation, mining of the land for gold, and desecration of Country. The selected artists interrogate wealth and the Australian dream of finding a better life — a fair go — in the context of cultural, racial and political inequalities.

The exhibition asks: does the Australian way of life enable us to remain the lucky country or are there darker forces impacting on this? With over 25 consecutive years of positive economic growth in Australia, what are the hidden social and environmental costs of this wealth generation and how does globalism affect this? How did the Gold-rush impact Australia’s first-nation and Australian Chinese people and are these effects still being felt today?

Shoufay will show alongside Jonathan Jones, Paolo Balla, Marlene Gilson, Alicia Bryson-Haynes, Eugenia Lim, Danie Mellor, Raquel Ormella, Ryan Presley, Lizzy Sampson, and John Young. Lucky? launches on Saturday November 17 from 2pm, and will show through to March 3, 2019.