Home > LANDSCAPES > Vol. 8 > Iss. 1 (2018)
Article Title
Abstract
Dwelling, Belonging, Nostalgia, Solastalgia, Sense of Place
This urban landscape, Mandurama Storm, highlights our resistance to the forces of nature. The photograph is underpinned by a similar sentiment to artist Laura Glusman, who writes, “the concept of landscape is not an isolated portion of land that exists only to be contemplated, but [is] a being imprinted with the traces of culture, storms, commerce and climate change”.
The image depicts an anonymous building behind a nondescript façade in the main street of a small town. It is of unknown purpose, but appears to be a former business. There are signs that it may now be inhabited as a residence, such as a garden-style gate over the original front door, and a television antenna protruding from atop the fibro structure behind. A single line still connects the building to the grid via the adjacent power pole, which frames the space above with its web of electrical cables. As a fierce storm approaches, a last shaft of sunlight casts an ominous shadow of a cross, which is mimicked by designs in the façade itself. But it is not of any ethereal origin, and is instead caused by another man-made power pole. This building, which suggests a battening down of the hatches, preparing for the inevitable storm, could be anywhere, and is everywhere in regional Australia.
Recommended Citation
Holcombe, J.
(2018).
Mandurama Storm.
Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language, 8(1).
Retrieved from
https://ro.ecu.edu.au/landscapes/vol8/iss1/27