This is a Q&A with artist-curator Rasha Tayeh, who presents an iteration of compost : compose at Next Wave at part of Blindside's Emerging Curator Program.
compost : compose is an arts project inviting artists to reflect on the purpose of art in times of ongoing genocide, social decay and climate crisis.
Can you tell us about how compost : compose came to be? How did the idea start?
This project came about from a deep personal grief since 7th Oct 2023 and while the genocide against Palestinians continues, I found myself spending more time in my garden, and less time with people… soil became my companion. And from a place of despair and sadness, I wanted to search for meaning to life, to learn from our more-than-human kin, I wanted to sit with plants, to watch them grow.
To see life.
In this meditation and somewhat obsessive gardening process, I started to think about the materiality and metaphor of composting as a process. How fungi, worms and other micro-organisms can be a useful metaphor to more regenerative movements towards liberation and reparative futures. A play on words, compost and compose, with one letter changing at the end of each word – a project’s title sprouted.
I decided to go home to Palestine to see family and friends, and I was feeling particularly uninspired and disillusioned by the creative community in Naarm and (for a long time) frustrated by the problematic funding streams that make up the cultural fabric of this city. I wanted to reconnect with a community that understood through lived experience what I feel, to be in a creative community that feels familiar, where I didn’t need to justify anything about my work, and more importantly where I wasn’t censored. Where I could just be. Having honest conversations minus all the other white noise I find myself dealing with in Naarm.
Over the past two years compost : compose had a few iterations including a series of workshops and discussions at mmag Foundation (Amman, 2024), The Wonder Cabinet (Bethlehem, 2024) and at Bus Projects (Naarm, 2025). I published a creative essay in Artlink Magazine titled compost : compose (December 2024 Issue), participated in an art-sound-bar residency at The Wonder Cabinet (Bethlehem Palestine June – August 2025), presented an exhibition and open studio at Blindside ARI (Naarm, 2025) as part of the development period for the upcoming performance at Next Wave and the associated Emerging Curator Mentorship in collaboration with Blindside and Next Wave (Naarm, Sept-Dec 2025).
I’m very excited for this opportunity to invite artists join in the conversations and develop works that respond to the themes of this project and its outputs so far.
In a way, this iteration is focused on the “compose” of compost : compose and it was important to me that future compositions happen in community, in collaboration and with collective effort. And next week we have a live performance on Wednesday 18th Feb 2026 featuring Allara, mohamed chamas and Ysk. And a public programme with performances from Sarah Iman, Mwaffaq Al-Hajjar and DT followed by an artist talk with participating performers Saturday 21st Feb 2026.
Who is compost : compose for?
Anyone concerned about the state of our world, and anyone frustrated with the Arts here in Naarm and wants to do something about it, or is hoping to connect with like-minded people who want to actively compose new realities, not just sit in the tension of resisting or critiquing the status quo.
What do you hope people who come to compose : compose will feel/experience/learn?
I hope people can tap into a sense of meaning and purpose that not only interrogates and critiques the relevance of the arts in time of ongoing genocide, social unravelling and climate crisis, but also (hopefully) allows for action.
Can you tell us what it means to you to compost old structures and decompose inherited ways of thinking? Can you provide an example from your practice?
There are many examples, but the first one that comes to mind for me in relation to this project is that as a trained photographer I found myself in a way ‘composting’ my 35mm film camera along with the plans I had for it while in Palestine, and instead working with cyanotype prints and interrogating the use of images in a world that’s saturated with digital photos and videos. I have also lent more into my own sound practice from filed recordings, sound art and radio work, to allow for a process of slow image making to exist within sound ecologies.
In a way it’s been about composting an old way of working, stripping it back to basics and re-imagining and composing something new from that place of change and transformation.
This iteration of compost : compose is part of your Emerging Curator Mentorship with Blindside and Next Wave. What does curation/being a curator, mean to you?
We are somehow always composting, evolving, regenerating and emerging, while I have been curating and directing at Beit e’Shai – the popup teahouse I have founded in 2017 – it feels like an important extension of my practice as a curator to work with Blindside and Next Wave and widen the circle to collaborate with other organisations who have actively stood against the genocide of my people, and have been clear about their support of a liberated Palestine.
Being a curator is about creating spaces that feel safe for artists to express themselves, and safe for audiences to sit in their discomfort. It is also about spaces that uplift counter-narratives to the capitalist, settler-colonial stories that force themselves into arts and culture in so-called Australia.
