Artist Statement

The human assault on the environment may be witnessed through the prolific amount of data generated in our attempts to occupy and possess the land. We frantically map, chart, plot, graph and diagram every aspect of the world around us. Lines do not exist in the natural world, as humans we apply line to the landscape in a bid to understand and contain it. These lines echo the physical marks we leave on the earth.
Dights Falls is 5km from the sea and 22km along the Yarra River of inner city Melbourne. A layered place where history and the landscape meet; it is a potent site that reveals the contemporary Australian relationship to the land. It is an edge place and therefore a sight for discernment and identity. A place where a number of forces converge and divide: solid/fluid, manmade/natural, north/south, saltwater/freshwater, river/freeway, sandstone/lava, ecology/industry, urban development/recreation, indigenous/introduced, past/future.
The images have been produced without actually entering the site and are constructed entirely from information available on the internet.

By The Rivers Edge (Dights Falls), Kirsten Perry, 2011, graphite on paper