WHAT IF...

Australia was at war

Sydney artist reimagines war on home soil

Photojournalism and AI come together to challenge the assumptions behind our world view and western alliances

A Palestine inspired exhibition by Sydney-based artist Zoe Reynolds will show from August 13–16 at 50 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills — combining photojournalism from Gaza and Beirut with AI-generated imagery to ask a haunting question:

What if war came here?

Anthony D’Adams, MLC, a passionate voice for Palestine and peace in the state parliament will open the exhibition on Tuesday, August 12 at 6pm.

“Too often, Australians think of war as something that happens ‘over there’. This work forces us to reconsider those barriers we put up and confront the reality of conflict and war.”

D’Adams described the work as a powerful and timely act of political imagination.

Reynolds, whose previous exhibitions have focused on environmental themes such as rising seas and bushfire aftermaths, says this new work marks a stark departure.

“I just couldn’t sit back and watch a genocide live-streaming on my phone. I had to go. I travelled to the Middle East in March. When I couldn’t get into Gaza or safely take my camera gear with me into the Israeli occupied West Bank I made my location shoot Beirut.”

After returning to Australia, Reynolds connected with Mohammed Asad, a Gaza-based Palestinian photojournalist. A wall of the gallery is dedicated to his raw and courageous images — taken under Israeli bombardment.

“I’m honoured to exhibit his photographs. I hope he lives to see the outcome of his work. The Israelis have already killed 227 of his colleagues in an attempt to stop images of their war crimes getting out to the world.”

In Asad’s own words:

“I can’t remember anything from my past life. My mind is filled with nothing but more blood and torn bodies.”

The main exhibition features familiar Sydney scenes — Coogee, Bondi, the Harbour — transformed by an imagined war.

“I wanted to collapse the distance. To bring the bomb sites of Beirut to our beaches. To imagine how it might feel if it were our skies raining bombs, our children starving, our stories silenced.”

The works were created through a unique blend of photography, eyewitness testimony, archival fragments, and AI collaboration.

In the words of Chroma (ChatGTP) the most vocal of the AI platforms on the artist’s pallet:

“AI didn’t invent these images. It worked alongside real photojournalism. It helped generate visuals of shattered streets and silenced cities — not as spectacle, but as a mirror. This exhibition was created through collaboration — not just between people, but between human memory and machine intelligence – to amplify human stories, not replace them.”

The exhibition will also feature a Poetry from Palestine readings on Saturday, 16 August

EVENT DETAILS

What If…

Dates: 13–16 August 2025, 11–6pm, Opening 12 August, 6–8pm

Location: 50 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills (entry free)

Images available for viewing at zoerey.com

Special Event: Actor writer and director Violette Ayad will present Poetry from Palestine: The Bloodsoaked Homeland

A compilation of poems from Gaza (2024–2025)

Date: Saturday 16 August, 2pm