unsettling Queenstown participates in the questioning and reimagining of Australia’s colonial inheritance at the end of the second Elizabethan era. This is done through the lens of a place: Queenstown. A place both specific and typical, there are Queenstowns all over the world, reflecting the global reach of British colonialism and the impact of its pattern of relations to land, nature, and people.

Taking Queenstown as both lens and metaphor, the exhibition condenses around concrete sites, histories and communities to explore decolonisation in architecture. Material from two real Queenstowns are drawn upon to construct the exhibition’s fictional version: a copper mining town in Lutruwita/Tasmania; and Queenstown in Kaurna Yarta /Adelaide, South Australia.

The elements of the exhibition form a loose assemblage, yielding affects, meanings, and resonances through their unfolding interaction with each other and with visitors. The exhibition is both an ‘opera aperta’ and an opening to a conversation, one that has been there for generations, but is only just beginning.