When I was a child my grandma and her sister lived in the house next door to the one I live in now. I went to primary school just up the street, and every afternoon at 3 pm I would walk home to her place and spend the afternoon with her, making scones and cakes, eating apples and pawpaw and watching Rollercoaster & Zoey 101 after school (lol). There were international students living in this house then. And a woman who would make me CD’s of her music, and write me letters on the disks. She always spelt my name with a C. 

When my grandma had to go to a home, my parents and I moved into her old house, and my sisters to the house I live in now. They were 23 and 27. I was 13. I remember thinking they were so cool and the house was so cool. I always wanted to live here. They eventually moved away, but this house was always for friends of friends even without them here, I know where you live, I used to live there too, type of vibe. 

In 2020 after we moved home from Naarm, we moved in. We filled the house with new art, and new things, and new hobbies. I’ve lived here for 4 years now. It’s just so nice. I guess this can be said for any old house, but so much has happened here. I feel so connected to it in that the people who I love the most, have all lived or been in this house at one point or another. People who I love now, and people who I have left behind. I first lived with Caeleb, here, I first lived with my best friend from primary school here. I first learned to ride a bike in the back lane way when I was 6, and then again relearnt when I was 23, in the same back lane. My other best friends used to live down the road too. Like what the hell! So many things have happened in these walls, and on these streets.

These portraits were taken one night when I was alone. My old house mates boyfriend found historical photos of several of the houses on our street, but not ours for some reason. I scoured the internet for archival photos of this house, until I found one from the early 2000s and decided to sketch it, and project it onto myself. These images signify a specific moment in time, and my connection to this place. I am in this house and it is in me.