We have familiar relationships with objects and spaces. Moving across and between different landscapes we use particular associations to form connections. The familiar objects we bring to unfamiliar settings helps us to create a sense of belonging. Like when we go camping, we pack our cars full of stuff that creates a living space within the bush, then pack it up and take it home again. What we construct in those places is transient, but the relationships aren’t. The feeling of belonging resonates in memory.

As I move within the urban landscape, I look for things that are changing – shadows on weatherboards, tree leaves changing colour, a house being renovated. I notice them in contrast to that which becomes permanent, like a dead car whose enduring presence can be measured by grass growth. Like opposite crop-circles, long grass pokes out from under the shell of a car in contrast to the neat lawns that have been mowed around it. Whether permanent or changing we are surrounded by signs of life. These signs embody the relationships we forge between objects and place, and create the familiar backdrops to our lives.

Margaret McIntosh is a Melbourne based artist. In 2009 she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) at the Victorian College of the Arts where she received the Maude Glover Fleay graduate award. McIntosh completed a Masters of Art Therapy at Latrobe University in 2016. She has exhibited both locally and overseas, including a sell-out first exhibition at James Makin Gallery, as a part of Summer New (2018).