A plot of crown land with a trig station on top, near the centre of Melbourne, is the setting for a new series of paintings that I will exhibit at Tacit Contemporary Art in August. The beauty of this location is that it is rarely visited, so it's quiet yet contains 360 degree views of this huge city.
There's incongruity in this location with She-oaks which are normally associated with semi-arid regions thriving only a few kilometers from the Melbourne CBD.
Also visible from this location is the former Willsmere Psychiatric Hospital, now "fashionable" inner city apartments. The grand facade still looms over the city and is a poignant counter point to the insane apartment development going on in the inner city.
I hope this location, just above the Yarra Boulevard in Kew, never gets developed. In a world obsessed with productivity, it can be refreshing to stand on this lonely hilltop where status and possessions mean nothing, and where I can contemplate the ambivalent relationship I have with this town - and perhaps with life in general.
