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.
