Rooms We Carry — Exploring temporary homes workshop

Next date: Saturday, 05 December 2026 | 01:00 PM to 03:30 PM

What makes a place feel like home?

Rooms We Carry is a participatory workshop series led by current artist in residence Lydia Wei, inviting people temporarily living in Naarm/Melbourne to explore their sense of home through creative expression.
Through simple creative activities using different materials, participants will reflect on the spaces, objects, and everyday routines that shape their sense of home.

Working with acrylic paint, coloured pencils and markers, participants will translate personal observations of their living spaces into drawings and paintings. Participants are also welcome to bring their own preferred drawing or painting materials.

As temporary residents, participants are invited to photograph their living spaces before the workshop. Guided by the artist, participants will reflect on the temporary nature of home and explore the scenes, objects and traces that emerge from living between places. Through painting, these everyday details become fragments of a temporary life, revealing how we adapt to, inhabit and leave traces within unfamiliar spaces.

Who is this for?

Lydia encourages people who are temporarily living in Naarm/Melbourne or have experiences with temporary homes to join the workshop. Please be advised this workshop is for adults only (18+).

What do I bring?

Participants are encouraged to bring photographs of their living spaces, either as a printout or on their phone. These will become visual references and inspiration for the workshop.

Who will be teaching?

Lydia Wei is a Taiwanese artist currently based in Melbourne. Her practice explores the traces left by people, places and experiences, and the ways these traces can hold memories, emotions and stories of existence. Working across painting, textiles, embroidery and participatory practices, she often uses ordinary materials and personal experiences as starting points for making.

Having spent the past several years living and working in different places, including regional Australia, Lydia is interested in how the spaces we inhabit shape our sense of identity and belonging. Her practice reflects on the emotional and physical traces we leave behind, as well as those we carry with us as we move between homes, communities and cultures.

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