Arts House invites audiences inside a Blak family home

Arts House will transform North Melbourne Town Hall into a fantastical Blak family home this winter, with the world premiere of a bit thing opening on June 27.

Led by matriarch and curator Dr Paola Balla and co-created with her children Rosie Kalina and Katen Balla, the free exhibition invites audiences into an intergenerational domestic world where art, family, culture and everyday life are inseparable.

Running until July 18, a bit thing reimagines the home as an exhibition space, building bedrooms, shared living areas and a “Blakyard” inside the North Melbourne venue.

Visitors will move through a richly layered house filled with family photos, books, textiles, protest materials, pop-cultural references and contemporary artworks. Together, the works create a domestic setting shaped by memory, humour, care and cultural knowledge.

Rather than presenting art as something separate from daily life, the exhibition places creativity within the rhythms and textures of home.

Rosie’s room is described as a hyper-sensory world of colour and youthful imagination, while Katen’s room becomes a photographic and sonic archive. At the centre of the house, a kitchen and living room invite visitors to pause, make a cuppa and stay a while.

Dr Balla said the work was intended to feel generous, intimate and familiar.

“We wanted to make a space that feels like visiting family,” she said.

The home is where we learn, where we get respite and where we imagine together.

Rosie Kalina said the exhibition drew on stories that had shaped the family across generations.

“We’ve grown up inside these stories,” she said. “This work is about sharing them, but also about creating space for others to feel held inside them too.”

Katen Balla said the installation embraced the layered, lived-in nature of family life.

“This is a world built from our histories and everyday lives,” he said. “It’s messy, layered and embedded with humour, just like home always is.”

Alongside the exhibition, Arts House will present a public program curated by Paola, Rosie and Katen, activating the house and Blakyard as places of gathering, exchange and shared practice.

The program includes workshops, screenings, shared meals, yarning circles and Koorioke during NAIDOC Week.

Public events include an opening curator talk and tour on June 27, Painting with Paola on July 4, Blakyard Feed, Yarns and Koorioke on July 10, and Yarns and Damper with Aunty Margie Tang on July 11. •

a bit thing runs from June 27 to July 18 at Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall, 521 Queensberry St. The exhibition is free, with bookings required for public program events.