newspace Sydney 2005

The era seems irrevocably past when the first settlers ventured in covered wagons out onto an unknown plain in order to conquer new territory, pitch their tents, reclaim land for cultivation, choose a site, put down roots, and establish small towns. But this conquest still goes on, only in a less heroic manner, motivated less by a pioneering spirit than by investment considerations, and therefore accompanied by well-planned construction activity through which suburbs spread out across uncultivated land. They even attract young families who simply drive up in a station wagon to be handed the keys to their newly-built houses. Nicola Meitzner, on the other hand, travels with public transportation into and beyond the suburbs—which is uncustomary and difficult—and photographs the outlying areas which have not yet been built up. She does this without making accusations, fascinated by the wasteland walled off by wooden fences. The lots overgrown with weeds and undergrowth seem at first glance to be functionless and neglected. A closer inspection, however, reveals narrow, well-trodden paths, graffiti, an abandoned shopping cart, further fences recalling the course of an earlier border, a garbage pail, a portable toilet: tokens of a settlement not yet occurring or long since past.
                                                                                                    Tomas Kadlcik

32 motives
Artbook
Inkjetprints 21 x 30 cm