The studio of Gold Coast based artist Anna Carey.  Photo - Toby Scott.

Sunset Place, 2012 by Anna Carey.  Digital print, edition of 5, 100cm x 150cm.

Star Dust, 2012 by Anna Carey.  Digital print, edition of 5, 100cm x 150cm.

Reception, 2010 by Anna Carey.  Giclee print, edition of 5, 118cm x 79cm.

Anna Carey in her home studio.  Photo - Toby Scott.

We met a LOT of talented creative people during our trip up North, and one of them was the very lovely Anna Carey.  Anna is a young Gold Coast based artist, whose practice overlaps photography and sculpture. She creates these intricate paper models of long forgotten, slightly crumbling Gold Coast-style buildings, created from memory.  She then photographs her models, capturing a sense of uniquely Australian architectural nostalgia. When captured in this way, for a brief moment these fragile models appear life size... but upon closer inspection it's clear that despite their familiarity, these buildings and interior spaces exist only as fleeting fragments of Anna's very vivid imagination!

Anna was born and raised on the Gold Coast, and her work is, of course, heavily inspired by her summery surroundings.  She's inspired by the distinctive houses, hotels and motels built in the 50's and 60's, with their ice cream colours and mid century styling.  Amidst the Gold Coast's faceless high rise metropolis, it's these modest, often dilapidated buildings which really give the Gold Coast it's character.

'Firstly I start with a memory of a place, and then I create the space based on imagination and memory' Anna explains. 'I usually sketch a space, however it always changes as my imagination grows. As a result the models are fragmented, like memory itself.  Model making is an important part of the process; it is like a memory mapping exercise. The photograph of the model documents this imaginative process'.

Anna Carey has a Bachelor of Visual Media from Griffith University. She's only 25, but she has already exhibited in numerous exhibitions Australia wide, and in 2011 was a finalist in both the Churchie Emerging Art Prize and the Queensland Regional Art Awards.   She's currently undertaking her PhD, in which she plans to explore the architecture and spatial experiences of not just the Gold Coast, but similar international cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where she plans to travel later this year.  Watch this space!

If you're in Queensland, Anna's work can be seen currently in the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery until May 19th (just a few more days!).  She is represented in Sydney by Artereal Gallery.

Anna Carey in her studio.  Photo - Toby Scott.