Bondi Beach

The strong bonds of family and the power of representation underlie Thea Anamara Perkins’ paintings. Primarily working with portraiture, she recreates archival photographs of loved ones and reanimates tender moments shared over time. Perkins calls the memories shown in her works ‘glimmers’ – emotional cues signalling joy and safety that are the opposite of ‘triggers’.

These four intimate paintings (accession numbers: 103.2023; 104.2023; 105.2023; 106.2023) depict the artist’s family across three generations. We see her mother Hetti and her grandfather Charles at his 1966 graduation ceremony; a Bondi Beach scene of her grandfather, mother and uncle Adam; her grandfather and aunt Rachel at the Telegraph Station in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, a place of significance to the family; and her sister Madeleine surrounded by family as candles are lit on her birthday cake.

As Perkins says:
My work delves into my family archives of photographs and, through the painting process, communicates the essence of these images. Fleeting, yet suspended in time, storied, and coloured by my own emotions and memories. They seek to express the love and strength in First Nations families and situate these instances of joy and belonging, or ‘glimmers’ into our collective imagination.