The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
An innovative multi-arts hub in the heart of Blacktown City.
Ghosts in the Kitchen, an immersive exhibition that explores the complex relationships between food, culture and identity from the perspective of First Nations peoples within Australia.
Curated by Rebecca Ray, this is a space where food is not merely sustenance but a medium for memory, identity and resistance – a ritual act rooted in kinship, land and spirit. Through an Indigenous gothic lens, this exhibition foregrounds the cultural trauma of colonial food systems while illuminating the powerful resurgence of Indigenous food sovereignty today. The gothic here is not merely death – it is what lingers with Ghosts in the Kitchen not as space of mourning but a place of reawakening.
The artists
Gallery 1:
James Ahmat Snr
Simone Arnol
Dylan Bolger
Elisa Jane Carmichael
Nicholas Currie
Penny Evans
Jacqueline Jacky
Kerry Klimm
Steven Russell
Bernard Lee Singleton
Kristine Stewart
Bankstown Koori Elders Group
Gallery 2:
Merindah Funnell and Emma Hicks present a creative commission focussing on intergenerational audience engagement, in response to Ghosts in the Kitchen.
Ghosts in the Kitchen Opening and Performance
Friday 17 October
6 pm to 9 pm
The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
Join us in celebration of the opening of Ghosts in the Kitchen with an evening of First Nations performance, dance, poetry and music.
Ghosts in the Kitchen is a group exhibition that explores the complex relationships between food, culture, and identity from the perspective of First Nations peoples within Australia.
Curated by Rebecca Ray.
Full line up announced soon!
Bios
Rebecca Ray is an experienced Meriam curator and writer, living and working on Gadigal land, where she is the Curator, First Nations Art at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia. Her practice is concerned with the re-Indigenisation, rematriation and the reclamation of autonomous and sovereign spaces, with an interest in global First Nations relationality and solidarity that inform curatorial and research methodologies. Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts (History and Sociology) from Griffith University, Queensland with a research background in decolonisation, identity politics and intersectionality.
She is an alumnus of the National Gallery of Australia’s prestigious Wesfarmers Indigenous Arts Leadership program and held Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identified curatorial and academic positions at the National Portrait Gallery, Australia, Home of the Arts (HOTA) and Griffith University, Queensland.
You can find Rebecca on Instagram here
This project is presented by Blacktown Arts and supported by Blacktown City Council.
