Camp Street, Ballarat
2010
Inkjet on watercolour paper
75 x 56 centimeters
The architecture in the former gold fields city of Ballarat reflects its affluent beginings during the gold rush and it was during a visit on a dismal rainy day when I decided to make a print which incorporated examples of the city's buildings. It immediately became obvious when I started this series of prints about the mood of urban landscapes that to simply replicate in a 3D space photos I had taken would not lead to interesting art.
One solution was to extrapolate an environment, such as this one, into an unspecific time hinted at by the unnatural lighting and the use of a figure who is clearly not from our contemporary period. The aim wasn't to conjure a faux historic moment, it was to project a subjective mood.