Susan Stevenson - Waiting For Rain....

Imagined, remembered or mythical - in the corners of our collective and personal memories, the vast space of inland Australia informs our national identity.

Recently, I undertook a road trip to Western Queensland where both my mother and I were born. My mother is dying and her demise is mirrored in the fading and shrinking towns of this marginal country. She is my link to our family’s colonial past and embodies the optimism and confidence of generations of Settlers. With visions of Arcadian splendour, they imposed European farming practices onto the Australian landscape - blind to the sophistication of existing systems.

In my new body of work, Waiting for rain… , remnants of this vision appear like forgotten memorials being reabsorbed by the landscape. Rusting metal artefacts, faded signage and lost fence lines retain only traces of their original purpose. And between petrol stops, small towns laden with too many buildings and no services quietly disintegrate.

Meanwhile, the population is still waiting for rain.