The Urban Sprawl keeps moving. Biodiverse areas are erased in the blink of an eye – a process so commonplace that it is hard for us to recall what exactly existed before these brickies’ sand moonscapes. Top soil is scraped away, yellow fill sand is trucked in from an unknown place and layered smooth like icing. Whole streets exist in a limbo like state – a developmental pause in the terraforming. This ‘clean slate’ is the blank surface upon which we can project our desires of the dream home & lifestyle package.
 
Land Sale looks to the altered landscapes, sweeping sub-divisions, freeway extensions and early-phase industrial sites of Perth’s northern suburbs. Taking their collective experience and memories of these sandy, barren and changed landscapes, artists Matt Aitken and Mei Swan Lim will investigate these familiar and yet largely invisible spaces. Through video and folk craft, Land Sale looks below the surface of the shiny brochure to try and understand the relationship between development and geology, urban sprawl deserts and dune systems, land and sales.

Mei Swan Lim is a practicing sound and visual artist whose work centres on the environmental, emotional and spiritual importance of place, interdisciplinary investigation and cultural storytelling. Her works have appeared at Proximity Festival, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth Festival and Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery. Lim completed her Bachelor in Visual Art at Edith Cowan University in 2017.

Matt Aitken is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Drawing from his background in Cultural Anthropology and DIY music, Matt’s practice centres around collaboration and empowerment. In past creative works he has partnered with PICA, Perth Festival, Museum of Water & City Arts Space. Matt is currently investigating youth radio and experimental film with Indigenous and CaLD young people in the community.

Both based in Western Australia, Lim & Aitken have collaborated on social practice projects such as Swamp Clubb (TRANSART), Walyalup Water Walk with Sharyn Egan (Perth Festival) and Freeway Meditation with Katie West (Revelation Film Festival).

meiswanlim.me