House of Gold | NATIONAL TOUR
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.
Drawing inspiration from a line of poetry from the Song Dynasty 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 was first presented at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in 2024 and celebrated the official debut of Thompson’s complete series ‘House of Gold’. Photographed on location, these works see the artist populating colonial historical buildings, including the Parliament of Victoria, the State Library of Victoria, the National Wool Museum (the former Dennys Lascelles Ltd. woolstore, built 1872), the Chinese Museum (former Cohen Bros furniture warehouse, built 1890), and Golden Dragon Museum (located on the historic site of Bridge St Chinatown, Bendigo). 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, in particular his grandmother Harriet and great uncles Frederick and Charles. 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.
Curated by Thea-Mai Baumann and Con Gerakaris with curatorial support from Reina Takeuchi from 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, the national tour of House of Gold, developed with Museums & Galleries of NSW, is bringing this exhibition to regional and public galleries across Australia from 2025 to 2028.