Fieldnotes from Batmania is an ongoing project sequencing 4x5 large format colour film photographs taken at parks, streets and monuments named after colonist John Batman. The work forms a portrait of contemporary settler society (i.e. Batmania) and is an invitation to re-examine official remembrance of the past.

I’m working in formal consultation with the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Corporation and the project has grown from my MFA at RMIT University exploring Australian identity and frontier history.

As the work is progressing a figurative visual lexicon has emerged that frames the paradox between the grandiosity of empire and the languorousness of the burbs.

Opposite is a sneak peek of some unprocessed sheets of colour negative film from the project.

In 2020 the development of Fieldnotes from Batmania was supported by a City of Melbourne Quick Release grant.