Kaya Fraser

The everyday and working class homes as sites of archive, memory, place and identity are reoccurring themes in Kaya Fraser’s practice. Working with still and video cameras inherited from her family, she combines a documentary approach with attention to the beauty residing in the everyday.

In her new work for Satellites, Kaya documents the experience of grief and celebrates the role of her mother as family archivist.

Staying in her childhood home over Christmas 2023, Fraser noticed the way her mother had carefully curated artefacts in every room.

From ‘The Who’ merch to bric-a-brac; stuffed toys to chopping boards; every object was either a reminder of the life her mother had built with the artist’s late stepfather or gifts from a community that had rallied around to support a mourning widow and mother.

Fraser has used found footage made by her stepfather, as well as new panoramic footage she created using his old Samsung Camcorder to create a two channel video installation including a display of objects. Give us a Smile is an everyday archive of Fraser’s working class home — as a site for grief, but also renewal.