Jamie Jude Smith

Installation. approx 100cm X 100cm (2025). Found objects, bamboo, plaster of Paris, gum tree branches, rice.

To The Rafters (2025) explores the feelings of "home" that I experienced as a child and continuing into my adulthood. Gatherings amongst Filipino relatives, extended family and family friends were frequent, often held in suburban homes of varying sizes and locations. My father and grandfather, both of English heritage, would joke about the ability that Filipinos had to completely fill a house without it ever feeling over-crowded or uncomfortable. Our homes were vessels filled with our loved ones, places of belonging, food and music. "Packed to the rafters" is an Australianism that means to fill a place to the point of overflowing, represented here through rice, bamboo and gum tree twigs.