Filled with arcade games reminiscent of an era when most ANU undergraduate students weren’t even alive, Kambri’s new Game On space offers rest and respite to the rigours of life on campus.

The generous shopfront at Joplin Lane contains a handful of arcade games, pinball machines, air hockey, ping pong and foosball tables, while the back walls are adorned with five large-scale paintings produced by recent ANU Art School graduates, lending a touch of class and pop of colour to the arcade.

One of the pieces is by Faith Kerehona, who has completed a deeply personal six-panel work featuring portraits of herself and five family members. The work, her grad show project from 2021, is focused on her family’s identity.

Coming from a multicultural Māori family, Kerehona told Canberra Daily she’s long felt a sense of disconnection from her proud heritage and the cultural customs that accompany it.

“A lot of the contention I’ve felt in my own identity is that I’m white, and I wasn’t sure where that placed me within a multicultural space,” she said.

The project looks at the diaspora and displacement of what it was like for her father and his siblings, who grew up in Sydney’s Blue Mountains separated from New Zealand, and in turn, a host of the cultural practices from their native land.

“The feeling of a community hub and being around each other, all the time was lost a little bit,” she said. “Australia is quite an individualised society and that was definitely adopted by my family.”

Completing a double degree in sociology and painting, her project involved sociological interviews with five family members, discussing the themes that emerge in her work.

Wanting to incorporate her interviews into the work, Kerehona built an AR component into it that can be accessed via the Artivive app on smartphones. It adds subtle animations, soundscapes, and clips from her interviews – adding another layer to the story and subject matter of the work.

The Canberra artist was devastated when the 2021 ANU Grad Show exhibition was cancelled and became online only, as it rendered the AR void.

“Now it’s in a space where it will be a bit more preserved for a while, so my family members and stuff who haven’t seen it can come have a look at it, which is cool,” she said.

With all five works focused on the broader themes of identity and diversity, Kerehona said it complements the space, which presents a chance for fun, regeneration and relaxation in a university environment.

“It’s great to have a space where people can go and detox, have a bit of fun and recuperate a bit. Especially being so close to the libraries, the study hubs and stuff, I think it’s so essential,” she said.

Paste ups ‘playful satire’

Another local ANU graduate artist represented at Game On is Izaäk Bink, who told Canberra Daily his work focused on the queer experience.

It features paste ups in a bright, colourful, pop art style utilising a disjointed, low-fi layout. Repeated use of a photo of a model from a 1980s gay pornographic magazine plays with “the tackiness” of such publications in that era.

“It’s satire while still trying to keep things colourful and playful,” he said.

Having his work displayed in a gaming arcade was fitting given Bink worked in one himself.

“It’s all very familiar,” he smiled. “I think it’s cool that it’s got a lot of old school flavour in here because that’s kind of where I was heading with this as well.”

Having majored in print making while at ANU Art School, this year Bink will complete an artist residency at Megalo Print Studio while also doing some photography through Photoaccess. Since last year, he has also worked out of his home as a tattoo artist.

He’s delighted his work can be displayed alongside his peers from art school.

“We all know each other and have worked around each other in one way or another and we’ve all got very different approaches to our work,” he said.

“It’s all tying in with self-perception and identity in a crisis, with nothing too serious.”

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