Maria Thaddea

Maria Thaddea, But you’re not really, 2023, multimedia screenprint, dimensions variable. NFS.

But you're not really (2023) is a silk-screened body of work that explores feelings of cultural inadequacy, reflecting on the sense of self and belonging within the diasporic community through process philosophy - a framework that emphasises the fluidity of experienced reality opposing traditional Western views of being and permanence. Informed by my cultural upbringing, these works take Indonesian and Chinese imagery and rituals, and put an Australian twist to it - Asian, "but not really"

With a diasporic twist to the classic tear-away Chinese calendars and angpaos (red envelopes), mixed with Indonesian street food imagery, I try to represent and make sense of the intercultural discrimination present within the diasporic migrant community in hopes of eliciting intercultural and cross-generational understanding.

Maria Thaddea is a young emerging Asian-Australian interdisciplinary creative, ethnically Chinese, culturally Chinese-Indonesian-Australian, working on Gadigal Land.

Her practice mainly revolves around print and graphic design, and how they apply to multisensory installation-based work through experiential spatial design (set design, exhibition curation, staging). She is interested in abstract notions of perception, identity and belonging as it relates to her diasporic experience.

International Women’s Day Tote Bag Design

With the design for this year’s International Women’s Day, I wanted to explore inclusive ideas of womanhood through perceptive subversion of stereotypical ideas of feminine aesthetics. The overall design is conventionally ‘girly’ (because there is absolutely nothing wrong with that), featuring a peony. Although at first glance it exudes the same aesthetic, it holds both feminine and masculine connotations in Eastern culture. (Who would have known?!)