Ellamay Khongroj Fitzgerald

Ladda ลัดดา

2024 Installation Mixed media including found and personal objects, video projections, audio recordings and photographic prints

My Uncle สุรช้ย shares iPhone images of my Grandmother’s ลัดดา daily dining ritual. Through our shared love of food, these images foster a sense of closeness between us despite the physical distance. As a second-generation Asian Australian who does not speak Thai, I explore my personal experiences of communicating with family through the communal language of food. Through a vintage TV displaying a video collage of familial meals and interactions, Ladda ลัดดา invites viewers into an intimate narrative of shared experiences and cultural exchange. The installation symbolises the recent journey of reconnecting with my Thai heritage, after growing up disconnected from my ethnic identity. It examines food as the conduit for my cultural continuum, exploring how connections within family are fostered and maintained through the simple act of sharing a meal. Ladda ลัดดา reflects on how these familial bonds have shaped my identity, personal history, and ongoing connections with the wider Asian diaspora. Ellamay Khongroj Fitzgerald b. 1992, is an emerging artist based on Yugambeh Country. Her lens based practice spans across photography, video and new media with an ongoing exploration into her dual Australian and Thai heritage. Ellamay's work is largely influenced by her lived experiences growing up mixed-race on the Gold Coast and perceptions of culture, identity and place as a second generation Asian Australian. Ellamay’s work gives prominence to the stories and voices of people within the Asian diaspora and navigates diasporic cultural experiences and identity, by examining the potential for meaning, memory and connection to one's ancestry. Her work reveals individual stories as defined by growing up Asian in Australia. These stories include memories of childhood, cultural traditions and familial connections of the subject and of second generation Asian Australians.