A Town Called Makeshift
and other monumental misunderstanding
Mary Louise Edwards
Mary Louise Edwards, 2007, Detail of installation, 10 degrees, 5pm: watercolour painting with gum tree, dam and
dwelling found objects, scenic paint dimensions variable
Notes by Mary-Louise Edwards
July 2007
#13
I walk around the block almost every day. Sometimes I walk around the suburb. I pick up lots of stuff from the nature strip, the railway
line, the back of shops. I do this in the early morning or on sunset when the light is soft and not many people are around. I haven’t been
living in this place long, only 5-6 months, but the majority of this exhibition has been made in this house. It’s only 8 k’s out of town but
it’s as far out of Melbourne as I’ve lived since moving from the north. I really love this area and would like to stay awhile. The yard is
almost all concrete which means it doesn’t need mowing. There is a plum tree and a fig tree that don’t seem to mind cement. I imagine
previous tenants planted the ginger. I hope the rocket keeps growing. The concrete also means the yard is great for laying out work to
see what’s going on. My studio is at home.
# 45
I think I like these urban environments because I was born when my parents lived above a shop in an inner suburb of Sydney. Although I
don’t remember it, I slept in the top drawer of the dressing table.
# 25
The first place I do remember is the house my parents bought in a new fibro suburb on the fringe of Sydney. We had what I think was a
huge yard. My parents built us a sand pit and a cubby house and a fence from demolished timber. They planted a garden that had rocks
in it where we used to look out for trap door spiders. We played a lot in what we called the park across the road. We could see all the
way to the Georges River and I remember seeing the banks of the river on fire. I also remember the frosts spread out across the park
when the water froze in the taps of our house. We didn’t know then that the park was a retired tip. I’d never heard of