I am accompanying my practice heavily with field research in my response to place. I am in a sense, psychologically returning to my local part of rural far east Gippsland to recover memories of belonging and home. In this gallery are photographs from and around the property that I spent the first 18 years of my life in.
Bendoc is an isolated logging community situated on the edge of the Errinundra rainforest. My upbringing was fraught with conflict as I navigated my way around finding a sense of belonging among the friction between the "greenies" vs the "loggers", the uncomfortableness of living off grid in a series of sheds, being queer and wanting access to education to pursue a career in art. My artistic practice began with surrealism and "inventing" alternate realities that I could escape to. Perhaps it is the distance in time and space that has been brought on by the pandemic, or perhaps it is just something that comes with age, that finds me longing for home. The further away from home I become the more I want to make art about it. In this reconciliation I am driven to find the bridge between the surrealist works I have been making for the past 10 years and the discordant memories of being unable to escape from a place that I now long for.
Comments