Map of Hobart [for a Tourist]

If I had to draw a map of greater Hobart for someone – an alien or whatever – it would look like this. It’s not painted from life, but from living – from navigating and traversing urban spaces. There’s the river, the mountain, several types of drizzle, and then there is layer upon layer of scrambled allusions. Streets, things, and places are named after far away cities, foreign colonisers, even an Italian Baroque painter.

This map shows my daily routes, memories, and folklore in a personal and coded language. However, it’s not a rebus where you follow the clues and it leads to something; more like a harmless enigma, made strange by our attempts to decode it.

Robert O'Connor

2018

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