KAREEN ADAM – WHOSE ISLAND IS IT ANYWAY?

Opening night: Saturday 29 October 6-8pm
Exhibition viewing: Sunday 30 October 11am-2pm

Where are you from… really? 
Maldives. 
Oh you’re so lucky! It’s so beautiful. 
Yeah… 
I’d love to visit one day! Why are you in this cold grey Melbourne!? 
Close your eyes. Think about Maldives. What do you see? 
Hmmm….
Would you like to come see some photos from my last trip to Maldives? I just got back after two months visiting family, friends and doing some work in Male’ City. I haven't been back since 2019.
Lucky you get to escape away to a place like that on your holidays!
I didn’t go for a holiday…. 
 
Through photography, graphic design, fabric printing, soft sculptures, sound and furniture Kareen Adam creates a space for visitors to navigate through conversations such as these. Conversations rooted in assumptions about spaces created for tourism, the privileges of holidaying, freedom to travel for rest and relaxation. 
 
'Whose Island Is It Anyway?' is part of an ongoing art and research project that critiques representations of island destinations and colonial mechanisms embedded in tourism marketing of these spaces. You can view the project via The Real Holidays Travel Agency Ptv Ltd
 
Kareen is a Maldivian artist based in Narrm (Melbourne), Australia. With a background in psychology, Kareen’s multi-disciplinary practice interrogates the personal, social and political complexities of living between two homes with their unique histories. Sense of place, home, belonging and identity are recurring themes in her art. Her recent works focus on visual interventions that subvert tourist paraphernalia and disrupt the tourist gaze. Currently a PhD candidate at Wominjeka Djeembana Lab, MADA (Monash University) her research delves into the politics of representation, and the colonial mechanism embedded in tourism of island destinations. Kareen has worked as a festival co-director, event organiser, exhibition facilitator, research assistant, counsellor, and exhibited artworks in Australia, Maldives and a few other countries.