House of Gold

Dr Christian Thompson AO traverses and dissolves binary boundaries through an artistic practice which 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 centred on native flora. With House of Gold, Thompson shifts focus to explore his Southern Chinese heritage, dating back to the 1850s Gold Rush migration boom.

Drawing inspiration from the Chinese proverb 书中自有黄金屋 [shū zhōng zì yǒu huáng jīn wū], or, a book in the hand holds a house of gold, this exhibition marks the debut presentation of Thompson’s complete series House of Gold for the first time. Photographed on location, these photographs see the artist populating colonial historical buildings. Utilising the body as a symbol of resistance, Thompson mines sites of colonial history as an act of quiet rebellion to the structural exclusion of authority within this country and subverts the power dynamics such institutions hold.

Supporting this emerging body of work are selected inclusions from New Gold Mountain, a series honouring the contributions of Thompson’s Chinese-Australian lineage. Speaking to the importance of cultural connection, this series is a proud celebration dedicated to the resilience and perseverance his family experienced, from the Chinese Immigration Act 1855 to the negative social discrimination experienced daily.

House of Gold chronicles a personal history of intersectional identity at generational scale. Dr Christian Thompson AO gives us glimpses of intimate moments shared between both his Bidjara and Cantonese family – learnings of language, food and self that make the artist whole.

House of Gold comprises a series of twelve framed prints from the House of Gold research project, a series of two four-panel framed prints, the single channel video work Chinese Fashion, and the four-channel sound installation Burdi Burdi (Fire Fire). Burdi Burdi is to ideally be presented in an enclosed space, with red wall paint and red coloured lighting.

The exhibition offers educational opportunities for primary, secondary and tertiary students and teachers across visual arts, performance, visual literacy and social history. For the community, the exhibition makes links with libraries, research, botanical studies, family histories, and stories passed down through multiple generations.