Collection: Neither Here Nor There

Neither Here Nor There | Liz Faul

Generator Gallery, Belconnen Arts Centre | Exhibition: 7 February – 23 March 2025

I was born in Canberra and grew up here. In all that time, there have been jokes about Canberra, about how lifeless and soulless it is. Always disparaging it and seemingly wanting it to be something other than itself… Melbourne, maybe? I’ve never understood it.

I was born in Canberra and grew up here. Being a local is what influences my work. I recently found an old book about Canberra at an op shop, which has beautiful photos of the city in the 1940s. The images spoke strongly to my memories of growing up here. I loved the evocative photographs and the narrative about how vibrant and cosmopolitan the city was when the population hit 16,000 in 1949!

It was a very different place back then, set in the sparse Monaro landscape — the wide open spaces, the few public buildings, a small town with its ‘bush capital’ ethos. Not much to do, not many places to go. There was very much a pioneering feeling to living here.

It hasn’t seemed so long since I was born here but the city has changed to be almost unrecognisable, much more quickly lately. I find it hard to relate to. These new artworks convey my feelings about that.  I use repeated motifs to express my memories of growing up here — the Burley Griffin map, the photographs of familiar places, and silhouettes of the family at different times. Other elements are arranged where they balance the image best, which for me is very much an intuitive process. Then I paint portraits of my favourite wild birds.