John Wright

I live on the southern coast of Australia, on the “western tongue” of the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne. Many people from Melbourne have their summer beach homes down here. In warm weather, the bay-side “front beach” has swimmers and sunbathers; the ocean beach, or “back beach” has surfers. It is beautiful and very pleasant. But, side by side with it is an aspect that is very different. The ocean beach can have violent rips, strong, unpredictable currents and huge waves crashing against sharp rocks. It is wild and dangerous and can easily kill you. And the woodland and scrubland adjoining the ocean is very different from the well-tended gardens of people’s holiday homes. Much of it consists of ancient-looking, writhing, grey ti-tree with shreds of dry bark hanging down. Vines and creepers grow over these snake-like tree-trunks, and hang down in curtains, or completely envelope the tree. Sometimes they form a canopy over bent trees that looks a shelter. The effect to me is like the remains of some ancient garden that has been neglected for centuries. There is, I think, something faintly unearthly and funereal about it. Then there are rocks and cliffs: sandstone, pock-marked and eroded in to fantastical shapes. They seem de...

Finalist, Mission to Seafarers Exhibition, 2022