Chelsea Wong, Indisposible, 2025, digital inkjet print
This collection of photographs, an assortment of film and digital, explore the concept of disposability through single use objects, abandoned spaces and the body. The subjects of these photographs represent the objects we discard, the homes we abandon and the people leave behind. These images serve as reminders of the residues of our existence, and how this ‘waste’ will find its way back into our lives once more, physically or psychologically.
 
 
Chelsea Wong, Taking Shape, 2025, digital inkjet print, 42 x 59.4cm
My practice is centred on human ruins. Through photography and performance art, my practice explores the relationship between identity and the space it exists in. I examine abandoned spaces from an anticapitalist and anti-consumerist point of view, questioning the desperate and futile search for a utopia. I ask, will the constant cycles of destruction and rebuilding help us reach utopia?
 
This series of photographs documents a site-specific performance staged within various abandoned buildings. In each space, light poured through ruptures in the structure. There was an attempt to contain the light by tracing its edge using small stones or shells gathered from the site. As one outline was complete, the light had already shifted. Consequently the stones and shells had to be repositioned either following the edge of the light or anticipating its next location in an attempt to 'trap' the light. This process serves as a metaphor for the instability of existence within liminal spaces. Just as the light continually escapes containment, so too does the individual shift in and out of legibility within institutional systems – where identity is subject to erasure or redefinition. The work reflects on the experience of those who exist in social or legal limbo. Like the fleeting patch of light, these individuals appear, disappear, and reappear in contested or non-sanctioned spaces.
 
Chelsea Wong, Filling the Void, 2023, performance art documented through photography
This performative piece is a continuation of my work with abandoned spaces. The location of this work is set at an abandoned car park turned skatepark in Dural. There are many openings in the building. Holes in the walls, hallow doorways and windows. I and two other friends tried filling these holes with our bodies. We reached out with our arms and legs, filling in as much of the space as we can. We tried stacking on top of each other. We also tried moving in the empty space with a large piece of fabric draped over us, creating a bit more volume. We threw the fabric across the empty space, we stretched it, wrapped it around our bodies. We also found a mirror there and tried filling the reflection with the fabric
 
The fabric is almost big enough to fill the opening. The performers move the fabric around, bringing it higher to compensate for the unfilled space above but then leaves a gap below, exposing the performer's feet. This movement embodies a fleeting sense of fulfilment that quickly collapses into disappointment, a reminder that desire always exceeds what is offered. It speaks to the torment of dissatisfaction, the wound that refuses to heal. In relation to the site itself, it recalls the endless task of a grounds keeper patching holes made by children and explorers — each time one is closed, two more appear.
The vicious cycle continues.