Have you ever had a childhood memory that, upon describing it to the involved friends and family members, has been met with a “I don’t remember that!” or “That never happened”?

Memory is an intricate thing that shapes the way we grow and develop as people, but it often warps and transforms throughout time, leaving us and others with incoherent details and modified perspectives.

Lisa Myeong-Joo’s new exhibition plays with this concept through it’s very original backstory.

The artwork is a recreation of a distinctive red chair back in her old adoption agency that used to be the stage for archival pictures. Upon looking back at the one taken right after her own adoption, she decided to ask the agency about it. The response was unexpected, to say the least: “The red chair in your picture doesn’t exist”.

The interaction inspired Lisa to take the chair out of the picture and back into the real world by partnering up with a local prop-making company and remaking it in real life, as a way of saying “Yes it does!”.

The red chair is now reclaiming it’s rightful existence at the firstdraft gallery at Gadigal land, Woolloomooloo. The exhibition invites visitors to sit down and relax in this liminal, reflective space, so that they can start conversations amongst themselves, build connections and experience firsthand what this now-tangible memory truly represents.