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 sound.
Thompson's work focuses on the exploration of identity, sexuality, gender, race and memory. In his performances and conceptual anti-portraits he inhabits a range of personae achieved through incorporating handcrafted costumes and carefully orchestrated poses and backdrops. Recent photographic works have been inspired by Aboriginal archives held at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford—constituting a contemporary response to themes of the archive, spiritual repatriation and cultural hybridity— while sound and video works present Thompson singing in his father’s language, Bidjara, which is now classified as extinct
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.