Me and My Shadow

Me and My Shadow

This work encapsulates my self-reflection journey as I travel from the Fairfield City Museum & Gallery to Cabramatta. I was fascinated by the abstract patterns from everyday objects such as shadows created from the houses and fences. We often create and separate ourselves with fences being the frontline to the outside world.

Fences represent the façade of protection and contain behind them, the cultural backgrounds of its inhabitants. They are the boundaries where people establish between private and public, where some are open and welcoming and some close themselves off.

This journey takes the viewer behind the privacy of changing cultures and how landscapes are altered throughout one’s journey. Walking through the streets of Smithfield, the houses change, reflecting the demographics and cultural origins of the populations within. Bilingual signs can be seen, mirroring the merger between Australian and other ethnic backgrounds. 

We see local communities’ bonds through creating their own spaces which reflect their culture and stories. Diasporas to this new foreign land find refuge in the communities built on cultural diversity and they can connect emotionally with the heritage they left behind in their ancestral homeland.

In this piece, I hold my suitcase in a similar position to a mother carrying her child. Parallels can be drawn with migrants traveling into a new homeland carrying their personal belongings and protecting their culture to an unknown environment. This also symbolises the endless possibilities for a child exploring and embracing the new world.

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