Using col­lage method­olo­gies, a col­lec­tion of images of pre­con­ceived visions of Alice Springs and pho­tographs of onsite expe­ri­ences were sam­pled to cre­ate the large-for­mat paint­ing. Their ongo­ing learn­ing of Alice Springs was deep­ened through expe­ri­ence and by lis­ten­ing to sto­ries told by a cross-sec­tion of the com­mu­ni­ty. Locals gen­er­ous­ly shared lived expe­ri­ences, mem­o­ries, and cur­rent reflec­tions of Alice Springs; this sto­ry­telling informed the artist’s direc­tion. The artists’ atten­tion was con­stant­ly divid­ed between the task at hand and the care­ful nav­i­ga­tion of pro­found social, polit­i­cal and cul­tur­al considerations.⁠⠀

On the left, there is an unchar­ac­ter­is­tic sea-side palm tree and a fig­ure wear­ing a Hawai­ian shirt hold­ing a cam­era that ref­er­ences a tourist. The pre­con­ceived tourist per­spec­tive is often con­struct­ed by curat­ed online rep­re­sen­ta­tions of ​“par­adise”, with the inten­tion of attract­ing nation­al and inter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors. This depic­tion is an ampli­fi­ca­tion of a stereo­typ­i­cal tourist expe­ri­ence that, due to brevi­ty, arguably denies an authen­tic con­nec­tion to the place and is not real­is­tic. The out­come of these expe­ri­ences becomes a dig­i­tal cycle, a reen­act­ment of online-based images. The artists high­light the dia­logue between real­i­ty and the dig­i­tal space through­out the art­work. Behind the fig­ure floats a motion-blurred pho­to of the Mac­Don­nell Range (Tjorit­ja) tak­en from a mov­ing rental van, empha­sis­ing the tourists’ dis­con­nect from the land­scape. This post­card image also acknowl­edges that the fly-in pub­lic artists par­tic­i­pat­ed reflex­ive­ly in mak­ing loca­tion-spe­cif­ic and com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tred art­work site unseen.

The imagery cap­tures ele­ments of the Clay of Pans, a place of beau­ty and, accord­ing to locals, ​‘a good reflec­tion of Alice Springs.’ Addi­tion­al­ly, quin­tes­sen­tial Aus­tralian objects such as plas­tic out­door chairs and car bod­ies were found among the inva­sive intro­duced buf­fel­grass. These frag­ments of urban detri­tus were arranged on-site, then reasethi­sised using acrylic paint in an attempt to extend ​‘pho­to­shop motifs’ to rein­tro­duce them to the wall paint­ing. The action of form­ing this assem­blage high­lights a col­li­sion between the urban and nat­ur­al landscape.

On the right, the art­work nar­ra­tive con­tin­ues on to depict a por­trait of Indige­nous Undoolya Elder, aca­d­e­m­ic and acclaimed artist Patri­cia Ansell Dodds. The artists’ time with Ansell Dodds com­pelled them to cap­ture her essence on the wall as she embod­ies a pro­found rela­tion­ship unique to First Nations peo­ple and their land. Through her advo­ca­cy work, she imple­ments cross-cul­tur­al aware­ness and informs health and social jus­tice experts. Her por­trait is strate­gi­cal­ly posi­tioned among native ghost gum and red earth. It’s sym­bol­ic, inten­tion­al­ly void of for­eign mat­ter. She explained to the artists that she is as much a part of Undoolya as it is of her. ⁠⠀

The pub­lic art­work runs along the walls of an alley­way. It is not vis­i­ble in its entire­ty from any sin­gle view­point and thus unfolds as the pedes­tri­an pro­gress­es. The view­er first encoun­ters the goofy tourist, then images of urban detri­tus that dis­solve into a mir­ror of the cur­rent land­scape which pro­gress­es to pre-colo­nial native scenery as remem­bered by Ansell Dodds.⁠⠀Finally, the paint­ing ends with the pow­er­ful mes­sage cham­pi­oned by the Close the Gap cloth­ing brand:⁠⠀
​“ALWAYS WAS ALWAYS WILL BE.”⁠⠀
Mparn­twe has and always will be the tra­di­tion­al land of the Cen­tral Arrernte peo­ple.⁠⠀
We respect and hon­our Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Elders past, present and future. We acknowl­edge the sto­ries, tra­di­tions and liv­ing cul­tures of Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander peo­ples on this land and com­mit to build­ing a brighter future together.⁠⠀