LIVING BELONGINGS

Inspired Conceptualisation and pedagogy for Student Intensive for Venice Architecture Biennale

2025

Very pleased to be honoured by Dr Michael Mossman Kuku Yalanji man who lectures and researches at the University of Sydney School of Architecture Design and Planning , Creative director with Elle Davidson Balanggarra woman from the East Kimberley, born on Gadigal Country with the CREATIVE SPHERE as the first Indigenous Curatorial team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale.

Michael, an invited juror and friend of Liminal Nexus Studios since conception, honoured this influence on the conceptualisation and inclusion of Student work in Venice and the formation of an Intensive. Here we focused on the somatic, haptic making process. As an outcome of relationships with ‘Oneness’ through lived experience of meditation and connection to Country.

Michael spoke of this influence in a formal talk at the Chau Chak Museum during the running of an intensive National Summer School, where we were invited to share the past premise and pedagogical principles from LIMINAL NEXUS online across the 12 participating Universities. The Students work imbued with a regenerative consciousness of Oneness and deepening connection to country through somatic expression exhibited in Venice.

  • Kien Situ | Master of Architecture University of Sydney

    Shanshui(Prophecy) Kien Situ

    国ḉ山河åœ̈æ ̃¥æœ›
    The country is broken, though mountains and rivers remain
    æ ̃¥æœ›,æœç”«
    Spring Scene, Du Fu
    757

  • Karaiyar Anusha Vakeesan

    Karaiyar Anusha Vakeesan

    "Home" is not a physical manifestation but a profound embodiment of belonging, identity, and the roots that define me.As a first generation immigrant, "home" is ingrained within me as memories and stories of my ancestors become a permanent lens through which I understand myself.As a child of the Sri Lankan Tamil fishing diaspora, the idea of "home" exists as an idealized longing. My ancestors were bound to the sea by the caste system, cast adrift in its tides, relegated to fishing as both sustenance and imposed fate.The shoreline of the sea becomes a threshold, a liminal space where "home" is both lost and found. The sea, both freedom and confinement, cradles my history in its currents, whispering ancestral echoes in every crashing wave.Ultimately, "home" is not a place I can return to, nor a singular place I can claim. It is the echo of my ancestors’ voices, my loved ones' touch, the salt of the sea sticking to my skin, and the enduring spirit that ties me to the water.

  • Beyond Mum’s Garden Lauren Cvetko

    Beyond Mum’s Garden Lauren Cvetko

    A lack of ‘belonging’ left me spiritually homeless. A self-commodifying pursuit for acceptance, resulted in a distorted state of mind becoming home; dissociation. In thought, in mum’s garden. As a culturally disjunct child, when I rationalise my ‘belonging’ to the global zeitgeist, I am in a state of mental apprehension, fear over my validity – my existence.True home and belonging for me falls under what happens on and with Country. Understanding foremost we have an inseparable relationship with the land, and ultimately with each other. With body and mind in contention I hinder my ability to engage in a benevolent form of creation: connection. Engaging in ‘HOME’ was a catalyst for me to reconnect with family and a childhood garden I was separated from for 11 years. Beyond Mum’s Garden’ invites you to reflect; grounding you in sight, aroma and pattern.