Benalla Simeon Ayres: A Cartography of the Heart country A courtship of belonging

Simeon Ayres’ practice is defined by landscapes that are aerial, map-like in perspective, while also encompassing more traditional and pictorial depictions. His work is an attempt to understand the animate world – a world that he sees as both alive and intelligent. He looks for the landscape’s hidden voice, its language, its liminality and its magic. During the process, Simeon finds that the making of a map is a courtship of kinds, a dance that hopefully allows, what he calls, the “creatureliness” of the country to show itself. A completed map becomes an invitation to the viewer to follow the deepening paths back home. Simeon says: “I walk, I listen, and observe. I feel into the country, its colours, sounds and shapes, its hidden pathways, and secret places. I like to strip back the country of its man-made additions, and speculate as to how it would be before we arrived. I like the idea that in my mapmaking, I am giving the land back to itself, suggesting it could dream once again.”