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Travelling home

By Thomas Feng

April 2^nd, 2017

"Travelling Home" is an exhibition I recently attended which explored the contrast between travel and home and how we often attempt to find a sense of belonging/identity when we are abroad.

"We all travel away to find ourselves in someone else's home, we travel to find the unknown within ourselves to feel at home."

It was held at Lulu Cafe & Gallery, one of my favourite spots in North Melbourne on Queensberry St. It is a very cosy, quaint space which is open during the day for brunch/coffees and at night for dinner/drinks. There's a little courtyard out the back with a long communal table and some beautiful fairy-lights hanging above, whilst the restrooms sit adjacent to a small, charming theatre/art reading room. Photos and postcards hang like bunting on the walls, while the rest of the exhibition sits quietly upstairs.

Lulu Cafe

Lulu Cafe

Lulu Cafe

I'd just arrived back in Melbourne from Jakarta 24 hours ago upon attending and was feeling grateful for where I live and the opportunities I have earned being raised here. I think the exhibition accentuated the feeling, as the images which impacted me most were ones of displaced refugees trying to find a sense of belonging in dire circumstances. It inspires me to do more to create a fairer, more equal society where the opportunities afforded to us are not limited by place of birth, colour of skin, or what sexuality and gender you identify with.

Other pieces which really struck me were of charming yet derelict buildings; of mother nature's beauty; of morning cups of tea; of tourists being culturally insensitive to the places they visit; of the invisibility of homeless people; and of a candle burning in the middle of a dark home with no-one around.

They challenged my ideas of what travel were, as I had never factored in homelessness or refugees in my concept of what travel was. It also prompted a discussion in my own head of what home was: I usually describe it as a sense of belonging and place which a person will always come back to, but this seems incompatible with the ideas in travel mentioned previously. I think my idea of home assumes that we have singular identities as people, but a person has multiple identities - I'm Chinese-Australian, a writer, loyal friend, film-photography-enthusiast, marketer, tea-drinker among many other things.

I'm human though, and perhaps that is my singular identity.

The power of art is in its ability to challenge pre-conceived ideas and thoughts and provoke meaningful discussion. Art has quickly become a favourite past-time of mine this year; I have grown to love being in a gallery quietly deep in thought.

I definitely recommend anyone going through North Melbourne to visit Lulu for a lovely time in a lovely space.

T

xx

P.S I hope you are well. I'd love to hear from you in regards to what you think of art and how you interact with it.

Lulu Cafe

Lulu Cafe

© 2026 Thomas Feng

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