Entertainment
18 April, 2026
Asian links in ‘House of Gold’
A NEW exhibition at the Cairns Art Gallery is showcasing the work of Dr Christian Thompson and exploring themes of identity, culture and history.
‘House of Gold’ opened on 11 April and runs until 14 June. It marks the latest stop in a national tour developed with Museums and Galleries of NSW.
The exhibition spans photography, performance, sculpture, moving image and sound, with Dr Thompson drawing on his Bidjara and Cantonese heritage. His work focuses on concepts of race, sexuality, gender and memory, often through imagined personas set in stylised environments.
In this latest body of work, the artist shifts his focus to explore his Chinese heritage, dating back to the 1850s Gold Rush.
Dr Thompson said the exhibition highlighted stories that have not always received recognition.
“The story of First Nations Chinese Australian people is not something that has necessarily been given a focus or a lot of recognition but there is a very specific relationship and history emerging of cultures and identities… I hope that people are able to take that and apply it to their own personal stories and their family’s own stories, and their own sense of what we now consider Australian identity to be, outside of the dominant colonial narrative that we’ve been fed.”
Curated by Thea-Mai Baumann and Con Gerakaris, with support from Reina Takeuchi, the exhibition takes its title from a line of Song Dynasty poetry that means “a book in the hand holds a house of gold”.
The curators said the exhibition explored the intersection of Chinese migration and First Nations identity, using gold as a symbol of connection, memory and belonging.
Cairns Art Gallery director Angela Goddard said the exhibition would resonate strongly in the region.
“Cairns and this region carries its own layered history of Chinese migration and First Nations presence – and House of Gold arrives here with a particular resonance,” she said.
“He gives voice to stories that have gone largely untold and asks us to hold the complexities of identity, belonging and memory with real tenderness.”
The exhibition is presented by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in partnership with Golden Dragon Museum Bendigo and supported by The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Global, with assistance from the Australian Government’s Visions of Australia program.
