a field guide to utopia

shepparton art museum 

march 13 - june 21

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arcadia is the greek word for utopia, and the name of the on-the-surface idyllic small country town i lived for 18 years. a sleepy divot off the edge of the goulburn valley freeway, full of yellowed grass and cows, and permeating with the smell of whey. my thoughts on the town constantly alternating – despising it, ignoring it, romantising it, accepting it. now, when I think of heading home over summer for christmas i think of the heat rising from the roads and the flies accumulating over my brothers back like a cluster of small pinned brooches, as we walk down the twisted dirt paths leading us to our favourite bank on the river. the sounds and the smells of the bush serene, until the inevitable out-of-town campers turn up, and turn up their aussie bbq spotify playlist. i capture it all in my mind, and on my phone in notes and images, to come back to after i wash away my salty sweat into the brown murky water of the goulburn river.