Dr Christian Thompson AO House of Gold

Dr Christian Thompson AO traverses and dissolves binary boundaries through an artistic practice that spans photography, performance, sculpture, moving image and sound. The artist critically engages with concepts of race, sexuality, gender and memory by inhabiting imagined personas, captured in fantastical environments frequently centered on native flora. In House of Gold Thompson shifts focus to explore his Chinese heritage, dating back to the 1850s Gold Rush migration boom.

House of Gold draws inspiration from a line of Song Dynasty poetry or, 'a book in the hand holds a house of gold'. The exhibition chronicles a personal history of intersectional identity at generational scale, where Thompson gives us glimpses of intimate moments shared between both his First Nations Bidjara and Cantonese family – learnings of language, food and self that make the artist whole.

Curated by Thea-Mai Baumann and Con Gerakaris with curatorial support from Reina Takeuchi

A 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art exhibition, in partnership with Golden Dragon Museum Bendigo, supported by The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Global and touring nationally with Museums & Galleries of NSW. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government's Visions of Australia program.