Hills & Beasts

The unravelling of the construction, use and histories of hills, and of the various impacts of hills on individual communities, lies at the boundaries of the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology and geography.

(Sue Hamilton, Patterned Ground, 2004, Reaktion Books, London, UK.)

I learnt etching more than twenty years ago in Canberra. When I began to do it again last year I felt as if I was picking up where I left off.
My hills are about distance and longing, my beasts about endurance and delight.
The hills begin from pencil drawings I make while walking my dog around Adelaide becoming familiar with local hill-shapes, the way they speak to each other and trying to work out what they are saying or meaning.
The beasts, the beginnings of a contemporary bestiary, come out of notebooks and the night.

Stephanie Radok