Chelsea Carkeet’s projection Home Away from Home (2025) reflects on displacement, drawing from their Indigenous ancestors’ evacuation from Gulumerridjin, Larrakia Country (Darwin) to Magandjin (Brisbane) during World War II. Marking 80 years since the war’s end, the work combines darkroom chemigrams and animation to embody ancestral connections to Country and the cyclical nature of Indigenous knowledge systems.
Inspired by cyberpunk aesthetics, Carkeet reimagines their ancestors as anti-heroes in a futurist world where time and space converge. Mangrove and bamboo root systems emerge from a lunar module armed with a cannon, symbolising Western infrastructure that caused displacement. Animated barramundi allude to Gulumerridjin Moedra-nyini (star dreaming), where stars fall into the sea near the Cox Peninsula, warning against overfishing. Projected onto the Judith Wright Arts Centre, the work bridges displacement through metaphysical space, transforming narratives of First Nations resistance and regeneration, and asking who is truly alien on stolen land.
About the Artist
Chelsea Carkeet (they/them) is a First Nations artist with ancestral ties to Wagiman, Larrakia, and Yanyuwa communities. Based in Magandjin (Brisbane), they graduated in 2024 with a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Arts from QCAD. Their practice explores ancestral connection through narrative-based drawing and animation, focusing on the histories of diaspora communities and lived ancestral experiences.
Their work has been exhibited at Queensland State Archives (Beneath This Skin) and in Undergrowth (2024). They will commence Visual Arts Honours at QCAD in 2025.
On display nightly, 5:30pm–11:30pm
