Ghost in the Machine
Celacious666, Rainer Ciar, Fei Gao and Kalanjay Dhir
30 May - 28 June 2025
Image courtesy of Fei Gao
What if we find our souls to be enmeshed in media and fictional imaginings?
That the ghosts of us reside and stir within other vessels or interfaces; our realities (re)written, performed, and embodied even though we know it all to be a story. To describe a feeling through giving it a face — to use it as a mask or a shield. What if I’m more real when I’m projecting?
Ghost in the Machine brings together Celacious666, Rainer Ciar, Fei Gao and Kalanjay Dhir, whose shared interests in avatars and embodiment were born from fiction and digital cultures. Reliving memories and emotions through roleplay — by creating costume, illustrations and fanwork, the artists manifest alternate personas and characters that give body and form to psychological landscapes. Mediated through degrees of separation, these fantasies are part escapist, part confrontation with being human. In wearing our masks as extensions of ourselves, we may all embody others and share in their lives, loves, and sorrows for a moment.
Celine Cheung (she/her), a
s a visual artist, is most intrigued by interpersonal relationships, queer coming-of-age and secrets. She fashions confessional narratives through art, using mediums available on hand spanning installation, drawing, performance etc. Her art is often guided by visceral responses to love and loss, but she is also interested in excavating the uncanny, uncomfortable or embarrassing. She practises on unceded Dharug land.
Celine is making art as Celacious666.
xxX making fanart & fics Xxx special thx 2 my baby sib @louiruii 4 helping me wif w0rldbuild!ng & some of da illos. U rok! k@$h ur da luv of my deprzzing lyf u rok 2! MCR ROX!
@celinc.c / @celacious666
https://celinecheung.com/
Rainer Ciar (he/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and freelance illustrator and graphic designer living and working on Dharug Country (Western Sydney). Interested in internet and pop culture, gaming, and their own experiences of gender and youth, Rainer explores and plays with the tension between imagination, nostalgia, and isolation in their work.
@rainerciar
https://rainerciar.com/
Fei Gao (they/he) is an artist based on unceded Dharug land. They work with building characters and worlds through costumes, performances and digital environments. Inspired by toys, video games and TV show supervillains, much of their practice are playful, interactive and performative.
They are recently exploring how renavigating past traumatic events through visualising internal mental landscape could result in healing, connection, and transformation. Their current research focuses on Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), investigating its origins and its impact on individuals and communities.
@feithebeast
https://feigao.info/
Kalanjay Dhir (he/him) is an artist and musician based in Sydney on unceded Dharug land. His work draws on popular culture, sci-fi and history, using sculpture and video. Kalanjay likes to make up near-future worlds that imagine hopeful ways humans could relate to their environment. He enjoys thinking about the imprint that terrestrial human consciousness will leave on the earth and surrounding cosmos.
@kalanjay
https://kalanjay.com/
Ghost in the Machine
By Celacious666, Rainer Ciar, Kalanjay Dhir and Fei Gao
30 May - 28 June 2025Outer Space
Open Wednesday to Saturday, 10am–5pm
420 Brunswick Street,
Judith Wright Arts Centre,
Fortitude Valley, QLD
Opening Night
6pm–9pm
Friday 30 May 2025
Free entry, all welcome
Artist Performance w/ Fei Gao
7:15pm Arrival
7:30pm Performance begins
Exhibition Text
By Tess Bakharia
Where the ghost is the mind and its body the machine, I am the avatar and the avatar is me.
Ghost in the Machine is a meditation on digital space, reconstructed in the physical world. What does it mean to conflate the digital and physical realms? We consider these worlds as separate: the digital world - a speculative, alternate reality, and the physical world - the ‘real’ world. In actuality these worlds, which are increasingly entwined, are intrinsic to each other. The boundaries between ghost and machine have become blurred.
Public Programs
Ghost in the Avatar
Virtual In-Conversation with Tess Bakharia & exhibition artists, Celacious666, Rainer Ciar & Fei Gao
5:30pm–6:30pm
Thursday 19 June 2025
Free upon registration, all welcome
Online via Google Meet (Registration required)
Artist Statement
Celacious666
Western Sydney’s Hottest Heartthrobs: What if this Summer at the ARI is forever…?
Enter a niche fandom of Summer ARI’s Hottest Hearthrobs – you meet 3 friends who run an artist-run gallery together. Each with their creative hobbies and quirks, who will you befriend and form a deeper connection with?
Creating characters based on the 3 other exhibiting artists, this work toys with the fuzzy line between fiction and reality. Styling them as bishounen (Japanese for beautiful youth), they traverse between fan-made media modelled on otome games (dating simulator made for women-centric audience), Kpop idol magazines and collectibles, referencing a plethora of fan cultures and possibilities.
Their story is set in a fictional gallery, Summer ARI, inspired by the artist’s experience at Pari, an artist-run gallery on Dharug land (Western Sydney). The title references the name that almost was, ‘10 degrees Hotter’, which some thought it sounded like a boyband. Summer, a trope that evokes youth, euphoria and fleetingness. Enveloping the world of Summer ARI is a rose-coloured lens that highlights the romance of collectivity.
Drawing parallels between fanwork production and self-organising within ARI culture, I pay tribute to these labour of love by artists.
Fei Gao's installation, The Shell is supported by SIRC_UIT, presented at INSEQUENCE on Dharug and Gungungurra Country, (Blue Mountains) May 2025.
Audience Advisory
Please be aware that some works may include discussions of mental health and stylised depictions of blood.
Gallery
