Geography of Nostalgia explores the emotional ties we form with landscapes, everyday environments, communities, and cultural practices—elements that not only shape our identities but also reflect broader national and geopolitical contexts. Originally coined to describe the geographical condition of being away from one’s homeland, the term nostalgia has since evolved to encompass the longing and emotional dislocation that arise from separation—whether from a homeland, a way of life, or a cultural inheritance. In this immersive installation, Lee navigates nostalgia as both a temporal and spatial phenomenon. Her work draws on the textures of memory and place—weaving together materials, moving image, sound, and imagery that evoke fragments of a once-familiar world. From handmade batik textiles and a quilt made of remnants collected from her family’s shophouse, to the gentle contours of Kawung’s four-lobed petals and banana leaves, the resonant call to prayer, and the cyclical rhythm of paddy harvesting, each element serves as a sensory portal to the past. The exhibition title, Geography of Nostalgia, is taken from the book of the same name by Alastair Bonnett, which addresses global and local perspectives on modernity and loss. Through this installation, Lee unfolds Geography of Nostalgia as a map of absence and presence, longing and belonging, the global and the local. It traces not only what has been lost or left behind, but also what endures—through memory, ritual, and imagination. 

Rozana Lee is a multidisciplinary artist of Indonesian-Chinese heritage based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, New Zealand. She holds a Master of Fine Arts with First Class Honours from Elam School of Fine Arts, the University of Auckland. Her research centres on ideas of place, migration, belonging, post-colonial identity, and cross-cultural mobility. Working across textiles, painting, video, and installation, she explores global histories of encounter and exchange that enable shared experiences—both within and beyond existing national and geographic boundaries. Lee has exhibited widely in public galleries and artist-run spaces throughout New Zealand. She has undertaken artist residencies in Singapore (2016), China (2019), Japan (2024), and Australia (2024), and was a research fellow at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography in Leipzig, Germany (2024). She also participated in the Zhelezka Project: On the Tracks Through Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan (2023) - a project supported by the Volkswagen Foundation that aims to develop conceptual and methodological approaches for generating new knowledge about lesser-explored and multicultural places. 

Lee’s artist residency at Redbase Foundation, Yogyakarta, is kindly supported by REDBASE and the Asia New Zealand Foundation.