HOW can an image reveal an individual story AND a shared south East Asian heritage?
ARTIST: ELLAMAY FITZGERALD
PROJECT: MIXED EMOTIONS
PROJECT PARTNERS: BIG CITY LIGHTS, REGIONAL ARTS DEVELOPMENT FUND GOLD COAST, NEXT WAVE: KICKSTART
DOCUMENTATION: ELLAMAY FITZGERALD, JORGE SERRA, ARTWORK AGENCY
Mixed Emotions is a community engaged project that explores identity, culture and belonging of Asian Australian people. The project is grounded in the artist's own experiences growing up mixed-race in Australia and being disconnected from her Thai culture. This project documents similar stories told by people from diverse Asian Australian backgrounds and aims to create visibility, cross-cultural awareness and understanding within the broader community. The research and development undertaken during this project will expand the artist's lens-based practice with the aim of forming a participatory outcome that engages with a wider audience.
A pilot of Mixed Emotions (Portrait of Lisa and Ruby) in the form of a single channel video work was curated into the inaugural Big City Lights festival in 2022. This iteration of the project captured moving image portraits of people within the Asian diaspora and was screened in proximity to Southport’s China Town on the Gold Coast. Constructed using cultural artefacts belonging to the subjects, the work reveals individual stories defined by growing up mixed race in South East Queensland, and unites connections and crossovers of culture for second generation Asian Australians. Slow-moving video and still photography capture Lisa Tran Kelly in her mother’s Ao Dai dress dancing with a lotus flower symbolic of Vietnamese culture. Incense smoke drifts out of earthy pots and jade coloured jewellery pays homage to Ruby Yu-Lu Yeh’s Taiwanese heritage.
Ellamay was chosen to participate in the Kickstart program by Next Wave, supported by the City of Gold Coast’s Arts and Culture Unit. Her participation in the Kickstart program will support her to foster nation networks and exposure for Mixed Emotions whilst increasing visibility for people of the Asian Diaspora. Her project outcome will be revealed early in 2025.
