All these things that you’re not allowed to do anywhere else. Forge metal, use chemicals for developing film, acid for etching into plates. The Sydney College of the Arts community is very nostalgic, I am part of the last cohort to go through study at the Rozelle campus, but I don’t attach a huge amount of significance to that. It’s at once a gift and a privilege as well as a burden. I’m ambivalent. I recognise that we are part of history – of the institution and Sydney – and as such don’t wed my chariot to the place. I see these changes as symptomatic and bound up in larger economic, social and political shifts.

The Rozelle campus is green but not very inviting. It used to be a psychiatric hospital and therefore the architecture is intentionally isolating. It’s fractured and fragmented.

It’s actually quite amazing that so many people have done so many interesting things there. It’s those feats that impress me. Continuing to work even in these times is resistance. Whilst we stand on the shoulders of those who’ve come before, we still need to find a new way to dance.

SCENT

Film developer, dusty draught, metal particles, sweat, coffee, mouldy books, youthful ambition and naivete, desperation.

By

s c