Songlines on the Surface: Traces of Memory
The Sand Talk Collection has always been about listening to the dialogue between sandstone and water. Sydney sandstone, with its ochres and golds, carries an ancient presence. When reflected on water, it shifts and rewrites itself, becoming a living map of the land.
In Songlines on the Surface, my eye settled not on sandstone’s sweep but on a cluster of raised shapes floating across the reflection. They appeared less like simple surface marks and more like an aerial petroglyph — fragile traces inscribed by water, echoing the way pathways, stories, and memory become embedded in country.
The naming of the work was not straightforward. At first, I was struck by sandstone’s shimmer, its ochres and golds. But as the reflection unfolded, it became something else: water becoming land, sandstone becoming map. From that recognition emerged a deeper connection to ancient motifs, marks that seem at once fleeting and timeless.
This work is part of a continuing exploration into how reflections on water reveal more than surface appearances. They offer traces of memory — songlines inscribed not in stone, but in light and movement.
