Urban dreaming : art and the psychology of place

Australia's urban and suburban environments continue to attract the attention of visual artists such as Jeffrey Smart and social commentators such as Elizabeth Grosz, (Space, Time and Perversion, 1995) and Chris McAuliffe, (Art and Suburbia, 1996). The complexities and patterns within these environments encourage scientific and artistic investigation. This project explores the links between the body and the built environment of post industrial Launceston through painting, and a supporting exegesis. Rather than being simply an observation, this project has evolved with and is very much a part of the post-industrial redevelopment of the Inveresk Railyards, situated just outside Launceston's Central Business District, into a cultural precinct. The exegesis is of two parts. The first is reflective, and explores my psychological response to living in an artificial, constructed environment. The second is factual, looking at the history and development of the Western City. Between the two parts I ask, 'Is the city a place that is good for us... is it where we want to be?' My intent has been to create images that represent the contemplation of people and place. The images I create are generated from the feelings I experience living within the contemporary urban environment. The stylized, constructed nature of my work mirrors a rigid permanency encountered in our urban and suburban spaces and attempts to fully experience an elusive state of being. Through painting, I explore the built environment as thought — as an idea or a feeling made visual. These images are a new interpretation and evoke new perspectives on the Inveresk precinct. It is important for human beings to constantly check their relationship to place in order to understand the intricacies of the body/ city interface. My work presents a personal visualisation of our body/ city relation