Home Away from Home

ExhibitionFaçade Exhibition2025

15 Aug

Chelsea Carkeet
17 August - 21 September

Chelsea Carkeet’s projection Home Away from Home (2025) reflects on displacement, drawing from their Indigenous ancestors’ experiences of being evacuated from Gulumerridjin, Larrakia Country (Darwin) during World War II to Magandjin (Brisbane). Marking the 80th anniversary of the war's end, the work uses temporal drawing techniques including darkroom chemigrams and animation to dually represent ancestral connections to Country and reflect the non-linear cyclical nature of Indigenous knowledge systems. Inspired by cyberpunk aesthetics, Carkeet imagines their ancestors as anti-heroes, speculating on how their stories and knowledge might manifest in a futurist world where time and space converges. Surrounding Carkeet’s ancestors are mangrove and bamboo root systems, emerging from a lunar module modified to include a cannon, symbolizing the Western infrastructure that displaced them. The spectral aesthetic and animation of the barramundi refer to the Gulumerridjin Moedra-nyini (star dreaming), an ancestral story about stars falling into the sea near the Cox Peninsula, where care must be taken not to overfish. By projecting onto the Judith Wright Arts Centre, the artist intends to bridge the impact of displacement through metaphysical space, transforming ideas about First Nations stories of resistance and regeneration and poses the question of who is really alien on stolen land.

***ARTIST***

Chelsea Carkeet (they/them) is a First Nations artist with ancestral connections to Wagiman Larrakia and Yanyuwa communities. They currently live and work from Maganjin, the custodial lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal people.
In 2024, they graduated with a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Arts (CAIA) from the Queensland College of Art and Design (QCAD). Carkeet’s practice explores their connection to their ancestors through narrative-based drawing methods, including animation. Their work considers the historical context of diaspora communities, focusing on specific ties between the Northern Territory and Queensland, and is grounded in their ancestors lived experience.
Carkeet’s work has been exhibited at the Queensland State Archives as part of the “Beneath This Skin” exhibition and was nominated by QCAD staff to exhibit in the “Undergrowth” 2024 exhibition. Additionally, they have been accepted into the Queensland College of Art’s Visual Arts Honours program for 2025.
www.coloursofchelsea.com.au
@coloursofchelsea

"I acknowledge that I have done my due diligence in the creation of this artwork in ensuring I abide by my communities cultural protocols. I acknowledge that this artwork was created on Yuggera and Turrbal land and their would like to recognise their continual connection to Country."