In 2020 my days fell into a rhythmic routine where I would wander with my camera behind the Coburg drive-in cinema and along the serpentine banks of the Merri Creek. Each evening, I returned home to develop my film, repeating the journey the following day. It was during these excursions that I found a treehouse cradled by the banks. The treehouse could be reached only by foot over stepping stones strewn across the creek bed. It felt like a special location, detached from the tumult and turmoil of the world beyond.
In the years since the lockdowns lifted, I have returned regularly to the treehouse, witnessing its transformations with the seasons. Crude messages and confessions have been scrawled across its plywood walls overgrown blackberry bushes creep ever closer. Under its shelter, a man, recently rendered homeless by the housing crisis, has carved out a sanctuary for himself and his two dogs.
Shortcuts unfolds as an ambling exploration of the treehouse and the wilderness that contains it. Echoing the path of its creation, it travels an undefined trajectory, following flowered sidepaths and leaf-strewn switchbacks, detecting fleeting moments and glimpses of light, circling back upon and intersecting itself. The contours of this exploration reflect the internal musings during its making, and, subtly - similar to the manner in which a sculptural form has its obverse in the mould from which it emerged - gestures toward the broader social and economic environment which has given rise to this space-as-sanctuary.
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