The Imaginary Sight of the Fancied Town of Bathurst 2025 - 2150

2025. West of Central 2

Bathurst Regional Gallery, Bathurst NSW

3.65m x 5.20m. 420 overlapping individual 80 gsm A4 prints on recycled copier paper applied directly to the gallery wall. Openable framed country component: 2.0m x 1.2m (closed), 2.0m x 2.4m (fully opened), additional 108 80 gsm A4 prints on recycled copier paper applied directly to plywood and melamine particleboard, brass hardware.

Photograph by Silversalt (Jennifer Leahy)

Audiences will be greeted by a large scale, drawn-up composite image of selected Bathurst heritage buildings combined with futuristic ones that reflect the ongoing and projected demographic changes taking place in our region. Two IKEA doors, the outside covered with the urban imagery of a future Bathurst and the inside with a scenic image of the Central West countryside will be aligned with and mounted on top of imagined future streetscape image.

The IKEA doors open to reveal a panoramic image of a beautiful but damaged tract of Wiradyuri Country. This full-colour upper layer, torn prior to installation and aligned with monochromatic layer underneath, visually evokes our acknowledgement of the continuity of Wiradyuri custodianship despite the disruption and violence of colonisation.