Condensery explores sense of home and belonging

Published on 06 July 2026

	Nataly Lee’s installation includes photos taken within displacement camps (2025, digital photograph, Nataly Lee).

THE CONDENSERY – Somerset Regional Art Gallery will open its doors to three new exhibitions exploring ideas of displacement, memory and belonging through the power of language from July to September 2026.

Three new exhibitions, برزخ liminal by Sha Sarwari, Snarm by Nataly Lee and Absence by Darren Blackman, consider how experiences of dispossession, migration and cultural erasure shape people, places and identities over time.

The exhibitions will be officially opened 2pm-4pm on Saturday, 18 July with talks presented by exhibiting artists and light refreshments.

Somerset Regional Council Arts, Culture and Heritage Advisory Committee Chair, Councillor Sally Jess, said each artist uses language to uncover hidden histories and reflect on what it means to find, lose, or create a sense of home.

“Darren Blackman’s politically charged works are grounded in cultural practice and reimagined into neon text-based sculptures and prints that disarm the viewer with vibrancy and his unique play on words,” Cr Jess said.

“Absence draws attention to the silencing of First Nations histories, making visible the stories, lives and cultural legacies that have been hidden or denied.

“Nataly Lee’s installation and photographic works exploring how ideas of home are constantly formed and reformed through everyday acts of care, resilience and survival.

“Presented in the Bomb Shelter exhibition space, Snarm includes photographs taken within displacement camps on the border of Thailand and Cambodia and includes a sculptural installation constructed from tarps, fabrics and salvaged materials commonly used in temporary shelters.”

“Sha Sarwari is a multidisciplinary visual artist creating allegorical, poetical visual experiences inhabiting the liminal space between longing and belonging.

“His exhibition, برزخ liminal, draws on lived experience as an Hazara artist born in Afghanistan and engages with sociopolitical discourses around migration, memory, place and nationhood.”

Darren Blackman’s neon text-based sculptures disarm the viewer with vibrancy and his unique play on words. Photo by Embellysh Photography.

Cr Jess said together, the exhibitions highlighted the lasting impacts of displacement.

“At the same time, the exhibitions celebrate strength, cultural continuity, and the human capacity to create connection, meaning and hope in times of change,” Cr Jess said.

Absence, Snarm, and برزخ liminal will be on display from Saturday, 18 July through to Sunday, 20 September.

The Condensery – Somerset Regional Art Gallery is located on 29 Factory Road, Toogoolawah.

To register for the official opening visit thecondensery.com.au/programs

Sha Sarwari, untitled 12 and 13, 2023, charcoal, charcoal powder, canvas and PVA glue on marine plywood. Photo by Sebastian Kainey.