Christian Thompson's work explores notions of identity, cultural hybridity and history—often referring to the relationships between these concepts and the environment. Formally trained as a sculptor, Thompson's multidisciplinary practice engages mediums such as photography, video, sculpture, performance and voice to explore sexuality, gender, race and memory. His remarkable flower wall works powerfully connect Thompson to country; other recent work has been inspired by Aboriginal archives held at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, envisioning a contemporary response to themes of the archive, spiritual repatriation and belonging.
In other sound, video and performances works, Thompson sings in his father's language, Bidjara, which has been classified as extinct. Underpinned by his idea that to sing even one word of the Bidjara language means it cannot be described as extinct, Thompson uses art as a site to archive and present the practice of spoken language, and oral histories, within our broader culture. Thompson's practice over 25 years has communicated Indigenous knowledges and ways of being, as well as generating new ideas about what might constitute contemporary Australia.
Thompson's ability to present a provocative sense of uncertainty about his personal identity—and by extension our world today—tests our collective visual memories without allowing for oversimplified answers.
Jessica Hemmings, 'Christian Thompson', Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture, 2015.