Take a moment to sit and draw alongside Jenna Lee’s illuminated lantern installation Balarr (To become Light) 2023. Artist Jenna Lee is a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and Karajarri Saltwater woman with Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Anglo-Australian ancestry. The art that Jenna makes explores these identities.

For Melbourne Now, Jenna collaborated with Japanese lantern makers, Kojima Shōten, to create a series of paper lanterns shaped in the style of Gulumerridjin’ dilly bags. The artwork is called Balarr, a Gulumerridjin word that means to make light, to become light, and to dawn. It is completed with hand painted lines, words and symbols of light.

In this drawing activity located on Level 3, Jenna invites you to complete lantern and dilly bag drawings with symbols to illuminate your identity.

About Jenna Lee

Jenna Lee is a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and Karajarri Saltwater woman with Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Anglo-Australian ancestry. Working across sculpture, installation and body adornment, Lee uses her art practice to explore these overlapping identities. Lee’s practice builds on the foundation of her father’s teachings of culture and her mother’s teachings of papercraft. Represented by MARS Gallery in Melbourne, she has exhibited in Australia and internationally, including the Pitt Rivers Museum in the United Kingdom, the Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, and Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane. Lee has also been the recipient of the Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award and the Australia Council’s Dreaming Award.