Aftermath & Hope
Aftermath & Hope is a site-responsive audio-visual installation by Dan and Anna Friedman that processes the personal and collective grief following the Bondi tragedy. Anchored in the artists' lived experience as local residents, the work explores the lingering emotional responses to the events. Dan Friedman’s projected visuals blend fragmented landscapes of Bondi with intimate, symbolic imagery such as shattered mosaics and silenced portraiture, to capture the disorientation and fragility of a community grappling with profound loss.
In dialogue with the visual elements, Anna Hirst Friedman’s looped musical composition serves as a gentle, restorative force. Blending acoustic instrumentation like piano and cello with digital textures, the sparse score is built on open fifths to evoke a sense of timelessness and breathing room. Ultimately, the installation offers a quiet sanctuary for the audience, transforming the shock of the event into a shared space for witnessing, reflection, and the gradual process of healing.
Samples of music being developed for the installation. Anna will take these piano motifs and extend them in a full scale electronica work.
Hope
Dan Friedman
Dan is an illustrator, digital artist and designer based in Waverley with 20 years experience running his own digital studio. He is influenced in his work by his community and environment, with the beaches at the heart of the community.
Using a range of multimedia tools to create his art, Dan employs painting and drawing along with cutting edge digital still and motion graphic tools to create visual landscapes that evoke experiences.
In this series, he draws upon symbols of transformation, such as the much loved Bondi mosaic tiles shattered, with a sign of new life and hope sprouting from within.
Anna Hirst Friedman
Anna Hirst Friedman is a commissioned Australian composer and producer whose collaborative song cycle The Fire Always Says Yes, with librettist Jessica Chapnik Kahn, recently received its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House. Since returning to composing in 2023, Anna has achieved numerous successes.
In 2024, she won the Sydney Jewish Museum Musical Portrait Prize for a work about Rabbi Ninio, which was later re-transcribed for her Silver Jubilee event. She has since created several new works, including Amidah A Silent Prayer, premiered at the Goethe-Institut following a grant from Shalom Collective.
Anna was a runner-up in the inaugural Nexas String Quartet Saxophone Quartet Competition in 2025, and in January 2026, she recorded this work. Her choral work MADRE, words by Jessica Chapnik Kahn, was featured at TEDx Sydney in 2025 at the City Recital Hall and premiered at a Poetica event hosted by Woollahra Council.
2026 continues to mark a period of growth and recognition. Anna has been selected to compose new works for Chorus Ecclesiae and is collaborating with Spanish percussionist David Moliner to premiere her works in Germany and Spain.
