I am hugely grateful to have received the AN Travel bursary for my residency at the end of the year. My project investigates reconsiderations of landscape through my fine art practice. Research will focus on how the geology of landscape shapes and defines communities and how social and cultural histories connect and influence understanding of place.
Through an extension to my current practice of reimagining the landscapes of the North West I will investigate how differences between northern and southern hemisphere cultures have a direct correlation to understanding of landscape when travelling on foot.
This travel bursary will enable me to participate in the international artist residency at The Lock up, NSW at the end of the year providing an essential opportunity to explore ideas of wayfaring and haptic navigation engaging directly with artists and bushwalkers in the Hunter region of NSW.
For the months leading up to the residency I am exploring areas of the Mersey Estuary considering a traditional western mapping bias, using public rights of way and permissive footpaths on which I base my walking journeys. My focus is on small spaces often on the edges of urban living and industrial sites. I am interested how we access, walk and respond to them and how they provide links to cultural and ecological heritage often forgotten.
Newcastle is one of Australia’s most significant heritage areas, trade and migration routes from Liverpool founded some of the first links between the North West and the NSW offering opportunities for exploring shared cultural and social histories through new work.
