There was a place called (N)everland
By Starry Kong
Artist Bio
Starry Kong is a Melbourne-based visual artist who was born in Kunming, China. She obtained a Bachelor's degree and an Honours degree in photography from RMIT University, Australia in 2019 and 2020. Starry is interested in the intangible and inexpressible sentiments that are characteristic to humankind. She explores this phenomenon through her own experiences of loss, grief, alienation and her long-term mental illness, which has become the foundation and origin of her creative practice. Starry uses photography as the primary medium to express her inner feelings and thoughts, while metaphor and symbolisation constitute her visual art language.
Artist Statement / Description of artwork
Starry Kong states she has felt sensitive, pessimistic, and introverted since childhood, traits that, coupled with depression, have dimmed their sense of vitality. Observing the optimism and energy of those around them, the artist often feels out of place, even “defective.” In an attempt to fit in and regain a lost sense of belonging, they frequently adopt a facade.
 
 Over time, however, the artist recognised this as self-deception; what is absent cannot be created through pretence, nor can what’s lost be restored by sheer will. This realisation has led them to accept their enduring solitude, embracing a sense of self shaped by these introspective experiences.