Terminal 1 Gate 10

Artist Anna Carey’s photographs and video depict fictive interior and exterior architectural spaces that present a generic global architectural style that feels both familiar and dream-like. Carey’s fascination with vernacular architecture, which is characterized as ordinary, functional buildings reflective of a region, began while she was growing up in the Gold Coast, a popular holiday destination on Australia’s east coast. The Gold Coast is famous for its beaches, surf spots and theme parks, as well as its mid-century motels and hotels that were meant to project fun and fantasy to attract vacationers, and for its modernist homes that embodied glamour and space-age influences found in popular culture. Later, Carey traveled throughout the U.S. and eventually relocated to Los Angeles where she was able to see many of the original buildings whose style had influenced the architecture of the Gold Coast, as well as other urban landscapes throughout the world. By mixing memory recall, reality and imagination, Carey interweaves model-making, photography, and film to create spaces that reflect a global homogeneity of the built environment, thereby evoking a sense of déjà vu in travelers.

Carey’s “Stardust” series is based on the exteriors of Stardust motels from all over the world, exemplifying a homogeneous style of architecture that has been copied and cloned, creating a familiar refuge for the traveler. Upon closer inspection, the photographs magnify Carey’s handmade models, revealing that the edifices are constructed miniature objects. These familiar yet disorientating temporary vacation spaces intend to create an imaginative experience for the viewer to reflect and drift between memories and daydreams, similar to the blurred state a traveler experiences when transitioning between spaces, places and time zones.

The photographs and video of interior spaces comprise Carey’s “In Search of Rainbow” series where rooms are based on a dominant color of the rainbow spectrum. Again, Carey constructs a miniature fictional architectural space; here, the rainbow-hued images explore the connection between place, memory, and color and its ability to evoke sensations “housed” within our interior world. The colorful interiors also aim to welcome people from all walks of life, ensuring everyone from everywhere in the world feels at home.