CHRIS ROUND | Comfortable Displacement
The following series relates to ideas of place identity and place attachment (or sense of place) - the emotional bond a person has with their local environment, usually depending on the length of association with that place. Being a citizen of both Australia and the UK, and having spent an almost equal amount of time in each place, my bond with each country is, arguably, of equal weight. This has created a strange sense of displacement because, although I’m a ‘local’ in both countries, I’m also a foreigner. It’s this displacement that I am trying to convey here. I call it a Comfortable Displacement.
For Comfortable Displacement I selected locations from both countries. However, they’re places with which I have little, or no, previous association. My aim was to be neutral. I wanted to evaluate each scene without any pre-conceived notions of place, or self, documenting the scene with impartiality thus allowing a narrative to be ‘discovered’, not pre-determined. I took the position of a stranger at each location, not quite knowing where to look, before fixing my eye on a scene I engaged with. The deliberately similar lighting conditions also creates neutrality and a visual ambiguity, reflective of my displacement - a portrayal of my blurred identity.
This on-going series certainly raises questions for me. However I don’t believe I need answers. But ultimately, over time, the questions will remain, interrogating my own sense of place, and perhaps my own identity.