Waxed paper, mirror, polypropylene

Urban dweller as I am, every opportunity for holiday/recharge has focused on ‘getting out of the city.’ Recently I have taken two extended country sojourns, chiefly to the Wimmera/Mallee regions, camping out in national parks; thereby visiting many country towns along the way.

Maternal kinship ties were also part of this travelling; memories of large family re-unions within wheat framing districts. Since then there have been many changes; drought is evident. Yet the towns themselves especially engaged me. Vacant shop fronts are not firstly apparent as their windows contain wonderful displays of community craft activity and historical memorabilia, brim full with pride. Even so, the thinning of population in these towns is evident, as is the continual spread of cities persistently crawling over erstwhile farming land.

Taking these perspectives into account I have created a small series of pieces; references are many, cross hatched between the obvious and obscure; composed of waxed paper* and mirror, my aim is to encompass harsh endurance, subtle fragility, contraction and expansion and the ephemeral qualities of resilient living, reflective of both rural and urban, on and within this land.

* waxed lunch wrap has been a focus of my practice for the past few years, and I was happily able to further procure varied stocks of this now almost defunct material from old stocks in many country town grocery stores along the way… special thanks to Hopetoun!

 

Tags: consumerism, family, farming, history, travel