Here and Now: Gold Coast Triennial 2024 Digital Gallery
Ellamay คงโรจน์ Fitzgerald
b.1992 Sydney NSW, lives Gold Coast QLD
Mixed Emotions , 2022
single-channel 4K digital video
06:00 minutes, sound
Image courtesy of the artist
Artist Statement
Mixed Emotions captures moving image portraits of people within the Asian diaspora. The work incorporates personal artefacts and traditional garments belonging to the subjects to connect crossovers in culture for second-generation Asian Australians.
As an Australian Thai person, Ellamay’s practice employs a method of self-inquiry, deeply informed by her personal history and cultural connections. Through her work, Ellamay explores narratives that intertwine individual stories with collective experiences, inviting dialogue on the complexities of identity, memory, and belonging within the Asian diaspora.
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge the Asian Australian participants Lisa Tran Kelly, Mika Campbell, Natasha Losung, Ruby Yu-Lu Yeh and Wanida Serce. Contributing artists include Creative Collaborator Jorge Serra, Soundscape Artist Lisa Tran Kelly and Makeup Artist Georgia Howlett.
This project has been supported by Generate GC. Generate GC is a City of Gold Coast initiative through the Arts and Culture unit.
The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
About the Artist
Ellamay Khongroj Fitzgerald is an emerging artist based on Yugambeh Country. Her lens based practice spans across photography, video and new media, with an ongoing exploration into her dual Australian and Thai heritage. Ellamay's work is largely influenced by her lived experiences growing up mixed-race on the Gold Coast and perceptions of culture, identity and place as a second generation Asian Australian.
Ellamay’s work gives prominence to the stories and voices of people within the Asian diaspora, and navigates cultural experiences and identity, by examining the potential for meaning, memory and connection to one's ancestry. Her work reveals individual stories as defined by growing up Asian in Australia. These stories include memories of childhood, cultural traditions and familial connections and those of her subjects and of second-generation Asian Australians.
